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Single-issue advocates are important because they focus on an issue more than most, but this is a great example of why you need to take their initiatives with a

Single-issue advocates are important because they focus on an issue more than most, but this is a great example of why you need to take their initiatives with a grain of salt... eventually single-issue champions will always lean towards authoritarianism. You need someone you trust to tell you when to stop.

beart 5y ago
I feel like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) pushing for sobriety checkpoints is another great example of this.
- micromacrofoot 5y ago
  Lots of big charities fall into this, probably 100 examples from PETA alone.
- voakbasda 5y ago
  I lived in San Juan county, New Mexico, which had (has?) one of the worst records in the nation for drunk driving fatalities. Like it or not, that statistic was due to the presence of and proximity to the dry Navajo reservation. Checkpoints were rampant, but it was both easy to discover their locations as well as avoid them. In practice, I found them to be opportunities to shakedown the population and issue any possible citation that they thought could stick, with drunk driving prevention being the ostensible reasoning to defend what would otherwise be an indefensible violation of the 4th Amendment. The net result for me personally was a near total loss of respect for law enforcement and our government in general. It demonstrated that the majority conform to our system of laws out of abject terror, or risk being arbitrarily targeted and persecuted under fundamentally unjust laws. No one in their right mind would claim to obey the government out of respect for the system’s righteousness. That’s not a sustainable way to run a government, so here we are: in the midst of a civil war (being waged in the courts… for now) and on the brink of outright revolution. The current assault on reproductive rights offers yet another glimpse into this now-endemic ongoing conflict, with actual violence occurring almost daily.

beart 5y ago

I feel like Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD) pushing for sobriety checkpoints is another great example of this.

micromacrofoot 5y ago
Lots of big charities fall into this, probably 100 examples from PETA alone.
voakbasda 5y ago
I lived in San Juan county, New Mexico, which had (has?) one of the worst records in the nation for drunk driving fatalities. Like it or not, that statistic was due to the presence of and proximity to the dry Navajo reservation. Checkpoints were rampant, but it was both easy to discover their locations as well as avoid them. In practice, I found them to be opportunities to shakedown the population and issue any possible citation that they thought could stick, with drunk driving prevention being the ostensible reasoning to defend what would otherwise be an indefensible violation of the 4th Amendment. The net result for me personally was a near total loss of respect for law enforcement and our government in general. It demonstrated that the majority conform to our system of laws out of abject terror, or risk being arbitrarily targeted and persecuted under fundamentally unjust laws. No one in their right mind would claim to obey the government out of respect for the system’s righteousness. That’s not a sustainable way to run a government, so here we are: in the midst of a civil war (being waged in the courts… for now) and on the brink of outright revolution. The current assault on reproductive rights offers yet another glimpse into this now-endemic ongoing conflict, with actual violence occurring almost daily.