4 ms·
Violence from governments is a greater threat than all other forms of violence combined. Governments murdered tens of millions in the 20th century, but now go
by MichaelCollins 4y ago
Violence from governments is a greater threat than all other forms of violence combined. Governments murdered tens of millions in the 20th century, but now governments cite violence from nongovernmental sources, two or three orders of magnitude less bloody than government-directed violence, to justify giving governments more power.
- pstuart 4y ago"Government" is like gravity -- it will always be there. It may come in the form of a democratically elected council, company town, the church, a warlord, etc. I'd rather it come in the first form.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoI am not an anarchist, I know that nature abhors a vacuum. The inescapable nature of government is no reason to blind yourself to the risk posed by government. The dangerous nature of governments is the reason we're supposed to have power distributed among many, not concentrated to a few, with a complex system of checks and balances. But these hard-earned protections are being eroded. Federal judges rubberstamp every fishing expedition search warrant put before them, a handful of corporations concentrate the power to control public discourse, and common fools cheer the premise of the "Department of Homeland Security" (the very name of this organization is some sort of Orwellian joke) pursuing common bullies. Anyway, to loop this discussion back around to my point: > Terrorism is a real threat. It isn't. The threat of terrorism is massively exaggerated by the government, for the purpose of justifying the government acquiring even more power. You are many times more likely to be killed by the police than by terrorists. Government and the media want you to fear terrorism because that fear lets them control you.
- pstuart 4y agoI've no love for the police and the abuses by same. I was making allusions to White Nationalism and Christo-fascism that are waiting in the wings to make their play. Case in point: election workers being harassed until they quit is low grade terrorism, but it's real and it's effective. Proud boys are a threat, and ironically are closely aligned with the police. It's messy and I'm not sure how to "fix" it. > Federal judges rubberstamp every fishing expedition search warrant put before them Is this in any way related to the investigations into a former president?
- MichaelCollins 4y agoCriticism of government workers is not terrorism, even when somebody is exceptionally rude about it. If the harassment was criminal in nature, then enforce existing laws. Construing it as terrorism is harmful to the public because it reinforces the government's anti-terrorism narrative used to justify unceasing scope creep and power grab. >> Federal judges rubberstamp every fishing expedition search warrant put before them > Is this in any way related to the investigations into a former president? I am talking about surveillance capitalism and government dragnets aimed at the general public. I'd be a happy man if Trump fucked off and died years ago. He was a willing and eager participant in all that I describe.
- pstuart 4y agoI'm not talking about criticism -- that is theoretically enshrined in the Constitution and for very good reason. I'm talking threats of violence with a goal of taking power. One of many reports on this: https://www.npr.org/2022/08/21/1118669896/top-election-officials-in-a-texas-county-quit-after-threats-stemming-from-2020 https://www.npr.org/2022/08/21/1118669896/top-election-offic... That's terrorism.
- MichaelCollins 4y agoHere's what I'm talking about: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intelligence_Surveillance_Court#FISA_warrants https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Foreign_Intellig... 41,222 warrants requests submitted to a secret Federal court since 1979. 85 rejected. 0.2% rejection rate, they rubber stamp virtually everything submitted to them, and I don't believe for an instant it's because federal investigator and prosecutors are just that good. This sort of shit is a greater threat to civil liberty than any sort of terrorism.
- notch656a 4y agoA federal judge approved a search warrant against me because supposedly an unnamed dog told an unnamed officer who told a (named) detective that it smelled "potential contraband" up my ass. Not even the testimony of an officer, just 3rd degree anonymous hearsay. FISA warrants are bad and the regular federal warrants process isn't much better.