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I'm surprised the article is about 1.5 year old COVID restrictions, and not 20 year old "war on terror" ones. The US has had standing "temporary" policies of i
by ohthehugemanate 5y ago
I'm surprised the article is about 1.5 year old COVID restrictions, and not 20 year old "war on terror" ones.
The US has had standing "temporary" policies of imprisonment or assassination without trial, torture, and mass invasion of privacy for almost 20 years now. There are limitations on the rights to equal protection, to assistance of counsel in criminal prosecutions, and to open access to court hearings, which are simply accepted as status quo.
Personally I would not argue that the US is not "free"... but if you want to talk about emergency limits of democracy encroaching upon that definition, IMO the War on Terror is a stronger argument.
- smsm42 5y agoWar On Drugs is even worse, longer, still ongoing and still eroding civil liberties all the time. And it most brutally affects poor people, with all obvious consequences to that. Americans have largely accepted it - which paved way to "war on terror" also. "War on drugs" paved way to "war on terror", which paved way to "war on virus", which is now paving way to... I'm scared to think what. I'm sure we won't like it, but the same people would tell us it's absolutely necessary to temporarily sacrifice our freedoms... after all, we are in this together! We'll somehow never see those freedoms back.
- ezoe 5y agoOn War On Drugs, US has handy dogs which bark randomly or handy drug test kits which detect illegal drugs from thin air and tap water so the government can gain arbitrary probable cause to arrest anyone. So what do we expect from War on Virus? Bake test kits and concentration camp?
- NoImmatureAdHom 5y agoThese are good points. I would say the War on Drugs is the greatest moral wrong of our times (domestically). The War on Terror is a similar move. Let's work together to end both!