6 ms·
Is it just me, or are we reaching the point where every other day there's a major news story about the security state and the continued criminalizing of civil m
by DanielBMarkham 15y ago
Is it just me, or are we reaching the point where every other day there's a major news story about the security state and the continued criminalizing of civil matters? You could almost devote a website to it. Lots of new material.
What it looks like is that we've reached the point with the legal system that the trick is to make huge swaths of behavior illegal, then selectively enforce the law. This is basically like having no law at all, only instead of a central ruler we distribute it out to thousands of various prosecutors (and their associated political parties.)
I don't want to be all "the sky is falling" but heck if I can see where we can continue like this for a lot longer.
- d0ne 15y agoNo it's not just you. It just seems the majority of the people have lost sight of the fact that Freedom is not free.
- techdmn 15y agoArg, I hate that phrase. It may cost you something to protect your freedom from those who would take it, but the freedom itself does not have any inherent cost. Secondly, I hear that phrase being used to justify all sorts of things that I consider to be impinging on my freedom rather than increasing it, such as using my tax dollars to wage wars against countries that are not actually threatening my freedom at all.
- d0ne 15y agoI believe everyone has taken my comment the wrong way. When I say Freedom isn't free I absolutely do not mean we have to give up our rights to remain free. I mean we have to fight for our right to remain free!
- sukuriant 15y agoAnd that was, if I recall correctly, the original intent of that message when it was said, far back in the day.
- sesqu 15y agoI was just today thinking about how so many sayings, like a few bad apples, reverse their meaning in a generation or few. References don't survive and witticisms are taken out of context.
- Confusion 15y agoIt may cost you something to protect your freedom from those who would take it, but the freedom itself does not have any inherent cost. Since there are always those that would take it, that is an inherent cost. Secondly, I hear that phrase being used How the phrase is being used is independent of how your parent intends it. Let's be positive and assume he meant exactly what your first point implies: that even independent from international politics, you have to invest time and money to retain your freedoms.
- fleitz 15y agoYou're right, it's commonly known that freedom costs a buck o five.
- anigbrowl 15y agoevery other day there's a major news story about the security state It's a great topic from the media point of view, because most people don't understand computer security or legislative process, and the people who understand one of those things often don't understand the other, so everyone is unhappy with everyone else. Conflict is an essential element of a dramatic story, and dramatic stories attract readers and sell advertising.
- sixtofour 15y agoI agree, although this particular thing has nothing to do with the security state, and everything to do with the gradual co-opting of Congress and the legislatures by the content industry.
- r00fus 15y ago> This is basically like having no law at all, only instead of a central ruler we distribute it out to thousands of various prosecutors (and their associated political parties.) Isn't that the central basis for the Prison-Industrial-Judicial Complex? ie, law enforcement, judges, lawmakers, and all the companies and servicers who profit from increased incarceration rates?
- fleitz 15y agoLike when the prisons pay the judges? http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=175x14997 http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=...
- tedunangst 15y agofwiw I have been reading sky is falling stories like this for ten years now, but the sky has in fact remained in its original position.
- cheez 15y agoYou might want to check your data: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/Incarceration_rate_of_inmates_incarcerated_under_state_and_federal_jurisdiction_per_100%2C000_population_1925-2008.png http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/6/68/Incarceration_...
- tedunangst 15y agoIs that all due to copyright violation prosecutions?
- cheez 15y agoI can probably tell you it's not due to people becoming more evil.
- tedunangst 15y agoAre you sure? Is there an absolute measure of evil or just what a particular society considers evil? As an example, when your graph started, people went to jail for sodomy. Now they don't. So if it's possible for society to reconsider something that was evil and decide it's not evil, surely the opposite must also be possible?
- cheez 15y agoSomething like one-third of convictions are for victimless drug crimes as I understand it.
- JoachimSchipper 15y agoCome on, what are you actually trying to say?
- rms 15y agoCorrect, the US Government does not exist anymore in the sense that most people think it does.
- loup-vaillant 15y ago> You could almost devote a website to it. Like these ones? https://www.eff.org/ https://www.eff.org/ http://lqdn.fr http://lqdn.fr