6 ms·

The EU is a canary in the mine and a case study in the slide towards authoritarianism that the US is not uniquely safe from.

rbanffy 2y ago
I'd argue you have already crossed into that space a long time ago. Just observe the numerous transgressions by various police enforcement agencies. When you hire officers with tattooed swastikas, authoritarianism is kind of what you get. I grew up in a society where I was completely unaware of it, just because I was a white, middle-class, very caucasian, cishet male. I never feared a police stop. I have never feared the police would storm a party, show, or rave I was in and kill a dozen people. I moved to Ireland and was rapidly integrated into their society. I never faced any form of discrimination. A lot of Brazilians there and here are not so lucky. My Indian colleagues tell horror stories of their encounters with less enlightened members of my adopted country's population. You wouldn't want t be one of them.
- throwaway48476 2y ago
  I don't understand your point, if there is one.
  - rbanffy 2y ago
    The point is the US is already quite authoritarian, with sweeping surveillance laws (enacted as a reaction to 911), illegal renditions and extrajudicial executions (outside the US), where discretionary power allows police abuse against minorities that is far more frequent than it is in the EU, but, since the people affected are the most disenfranchised minorities, there is little incentive to keep it under control. The US has far more pressing issues than the EU.
- leereeves 2y ago
  > I have never feared the police would storm a party, show, or rave I was in and kill a dozen people. What are you referring to here?
  - rbanffy 2y ago
    A couple incidents in Brazil where the police stormed a party to arrest some individuals and ended up killing a couple dozen unarmed people (in addition to the people they were supposed to arrest).
    - leereeves 2y ago
      Was that related to the US or EU?
      - rbanffy 2y ago
        Do black Americans fear their police forces?
        leereeves 2y ago
        This discussion is all over the place. At least we're back in the US, where, according to Gallup, 71% of black Americans think "that police would treat them with courtesy and respect in an interaction". https://news.gallup.com/poll/511064/black-americans-less-confident-satisfied-local-police.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/511064/black-americans-less-con... Also, black Americans fear crime more than they fear the police, and "most also prefer to maintain (or increase) local police presence and spending" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047235224000357 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00472... The whole protest movement against the police was more popular among privileged liberals who haven't experienced crime than it was among the people it claimed to be helping.

rbanffy 2y ago

I'd argue you have already crossed into that space a long time ago. Just observe the numerous transgressions by various police enforcement agencies. When you hire officers with tattooed swastikas, authoritarianism is kind of what you get. I grew up in a society where I was completely unaware of it, just because I was a white, middle-class, very caucasian, cishet male. I never feared a police stop. I have never feared the police would storm a party, show, or rave I was in and kill a dozen people. I moved to Ireland and was rapidly integrated into their society. I never faced any form of discrimination. A lot of Brazilians there and here are not so lucky. My Indian colleagues tell horror stories of their encounters with less enlightened members of my adopted country's population. You wouldn't want t be one of them.

throwaway48476 2y ago
I don't understand your point, if there is one.
- rbanffy 2y ago
  The point is the US is already quite authoritarian, with sweeping surveillance laws (enacted as a reaction to 911), illegal renditions and extrajudicial executions (outside the US), where discretionary power allows police abuse against minorities that is far more frequent than it is in the EU, but, since the people affected are the most disenfranchised minorities, there is little incentive to keep it under control. The US has far more pressing issues than the EU.
leereeves 2y ago
> I have never feared the police would storm a party, show, or rave I was in and kill a dozen people. What are you referring to here?
- rbanffy 2y ago
  A couple incidents in Brazil where the police stormed a party to arrest some individuals and ended up killing a couple dozen unarmed people (in addition to the people they were supposed to arrest).
  - leereeves 2y ago
    Was that related to the US or EU?
    - rbanffy 2y ago
      Do black Americans fear their police forces?
      - leereeves 2y ago
        This discussion is all over the place. At least we're back in the US, where, according to Gallup, 71% of black Americans think "that police would treat them with courtesy and respect in an interaction". https://news.gallup.com/poll/511064/black-americans-less-confident-satisfied-local-police.aspx https://news.gallup.com/poll/511064/black-americans-less-con... Also, black Americans fear crime more than they fear the police, and "most also prefer to maintain (or increase) local police presence and spending" https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0047235224000357 https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S00472... The whole protest movement against the police was more popular among privileged liberals who haven't experienced crime than it was among the people it claimed to be helping.