10 ms·
Why American authorities are always attacking their citizens freedom?
by thomasjeff1 1mo ago
Why American authorities are always attacking their citizens freedom?
- superxpro12 1mo ago[flagged]
- 0xy 1mo agoHuh? These warrantless phone searches happened in the tens of thousands under the previous admin.
- gosub100 1mo ago[flagged]
- vlyan 1mo ago[flagged]
- butvacuum 1mo ago"Ah, yes- let's compare an unpredictable once in a century worldwide event to a political party's long list of historical behavior."
- cwillu 1mo agoI see the sibling comments pointing out how American Freedom mostly cashes out as the freedom to not give a fuck about others are not wrong.
- oivey 1mo agoNot sure what way you’re trying to land with this rhetorical question, but the Republicans, right? Biden took office in January 2021, and vaccines began to roll out around April.
- winter_blue 1mo ago[flagged]
- 2_foos_in_a_bar 1mo agoIt's really just a sign that America has definitively and unequivocally entered it's cultural endgame. Of course American citizens are happy to violate the 'rights' of other Americans; being American in 2026 means absolutely nothing other than being able to tribally pick a side that claims to be the "real Americans" fighting for "what's right". Agents of the state are more than happy to leverage their positions of authority if it means they can grab a small win for their side. Of course, Snowden gave us definitive proof back in 2013 that 'rights' were being systematically violated for arbitrary purposes. But, no one dares be objective about world events lest they accidentally seed territory to their enemy! "But we can use that for XYZ if we get in!" says the American with glee. If Americans could be honest with themselves, they would realize national collapse is imminent within a decade. The only path forward is treating those around you with respect such that community is preemptively fostered before it is invariably required for survival.
- janalsncm 1mo agoI would recommend “Means of Control” for a more clear picture of how the surveillance state works today. Here is a review: https://reason.com/2024/02/27/the-spy-in-your-pocket/ https://reason.com/2024/02/27/the-spy-in-your-pocket/ The current situation is a result of a nearly unanimous Washington consensus regarding this issue. Not one party vs another.
- leptons 1mo ago>The current situation is a result of a nearly unanimous Washington consensus regarding this issue. Not one party vs another. That's nonsense and the voting record proves you wrong. Please link to any privacy related vote that hurts the public where "both sides" voted for it. https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes#category[]=3,1 https://www.govtrack.us/congress/votes#category[]=3,1
- janalsncm 1mo agohttps://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patriot_Act The senate vote for the patriot act was 98 to 1.
- leptons 1mo agoPretty hilarious that you have to reach back 25 years for one iffy example that happened right after we had the largest terrorist attack in the history of the earth. It was absolutely a knee-jerk reaction, and wasn't the norm, it's very much the exception. Please cite something from the last 5 or 10 years. I couldn't find anything recent to support your claim.
- janalsncm 1mo agoWe don’t need to keep chasing this moving goalpost. The Patriot Act is not an “iffy example”. It is the canonical one, and was subsequently reauthorized in bipartisan votes.
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- m12k 1mo ago[flagged]
- drstewart 1mo agoEuropeans define freedom by smugness and they lead the world in it
- victorbjorklund 1mo agoReally? Polish people are smug?
- drstewart 1mo agoSuddenly we're not identifying as generic European?? True freedom is shape shifting your identity to match whatever argument you feel like making.
- victorbjorklund 1mo agoWho are we? :P I am only reacting to your statement that all Europeans are smug. Maybe you just meant a certain country in Europe?
- winter_blue 1mo agoThis is on the dot. The entirety of their argument can be summed up as “I don’t want to give a shit about my neighbor”. And, “I don’t want to care for the hungry”. Or, “I don’t want to share medical costs with my neighbors”. Basically, “I don’t want to share anything”.
- butvacuum 1mo agouncomfortably close to the nail. American society is depressingly based on being able to point and laugh at somebody worse off than you. Never take a chance that a change that's good for everybdoy might place the person you laughed at yesterday above you.
- nutjob2 1mo ago[flagged]
- nphardon 1mo ago> Republicans might as well rename their party the Democratic Fascists of America at this point. I'm reading Stefan Zweig right now, he was a prolific Jewish author from 1890s until his suicide in 1942, living as an exiled Jew from Austria in South America. He has written many words, over a century ago, that would support your claim.
- inigyou 1mo agoMost parties are named the opposite of what they do. The effective way to name a party is apparently to name it after a popular ideology. That's why both the Nazis and the Stalinists called themselves Socialists.
- attila-lendvai 1mo agoi think it's just that the American population is the last bunch who gives a damn about it, and the pockets of resistance still makes the news... the same happens mostly everywhere else, just without much complaints. e.g. in Hungary the authorities treat it as a felony to possess an equipment that can record video or sound and it's not obvious when looking at it. 2-8 years in prison for mere posession, i.e. even if it's turned off in your backpack. random nonsense that if it can also make phone calls then it doesn't qualify (the above is the law paraphrased).
- ab5tract 1mo agoSince there are zero devices that are released that don’t indicate recording, it doesn’t seem unreasonable to outlaw modification of recording equipment to hide recording. You know, the same way we would be rightfully outraged if Apple was allowing applications to turn on the web cam without signaling to the user that the camera is engaged. That’s all aside from the fact that Hungary was run by authoritarian minded people. But just as I think it should be illegal for cameras installed in glasses to work without an indicating light, I don’t see how this recording light situation you are describing is really such a highlight of Orban’s excesses.
- attila-lendvai 1mo agoright, it's just Hungary... in Germany you must ask for permission from the military to leave the country for more than 3 months.
- attila-lendvai 1mo agoalso, it's been on the books for decades... when cameras arrived to phones, they added a sentence.
- inigyou 1mo agoIn Germany it's a crime to carry a laptop that has nmap installed.
- TheqO 1mo agoIt's not just America. It's many countries. UK is same.
- nphardon 1mo agoI know surveillance is on par in the UK, but is the UK also building and populating massive detention centers where people are kept without due process*? Are they flooding the streets of liberal cities with soldiers*? Killing citizens on the streets of liberal states (Minnesota) out in the open? Has nationalism completely overtaken the government and citizenship? Has the opposition party been completely neutered? Does your leader openly break any laws of their choosing while plundering national coffers? *https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/la-family-120-days-ice-detention-texas/3929904/ https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/la-family-120-days-... *https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/08/20/thousands-of-soldiers-now-roam-washingtons-streets-they-seldom-stop-crime/ https://www.militarytimes.com/news/your-military/2026/08/20/...
- TheqO 1mo agoNot yet, but Elon Musk is doing his best to get similar types elected in UK.
- drawfloat 1mo agoI'm not sure if surveillance is on a par in the UK anymore. ANPR (police run license plate recognition system that scoops up all plates that pass) was a big point of contention during 90s and 00s, but even that has been superseded by Flock (private collection, no major legal safeguards, AI based constant review rather than human review etc).
- rglover 1mo agoTechnology is becoming too significant an existential threat to all governments. IMO, this is the "animal lashing out when backed into a corner" stage of their arc. All of the bills are coming due and they're having to answer for them. Stuff like this incident (plus the whole surveillance gambit) just being a reflex out of fear, desperate to stay in power just a little bit longer. The funny part is, in the lashing out, they're exposing themselves and their true nature to an extent that the old illusions are fading fast. I implore people to never forget: your government is comprised of other citizens who are exactly like you; they're neither special nor omnipotent. They're just collecting a paycheck under a title. If memory serves, I think this is also suggested in the book The Fourth Turning but don't hold me to that.
- stonogo 1mo ago> Technology is becoming too significant an existential threat to all governments. IMO, this is the "animal lashing out when backed into a corner" stage of their arc. All of the bills are coming due and they're having to answer for them. Forgive my ignorance, but how is any of this true? Frontier LLM labs are practically begging governments to tell them how to act, the most profitable class of technology company is surveillance-focused (like Flock and Palantir) precisely because the government money is ubiquitous and unquestioning, and everyone else is "donating" money as fast as they can and getting blanket legal indemnification in return.
- rglover 1mo agoYou're not being ignorant; it's a pretty abstract line of reasoning, I'll admit. The logic (again, IMO) is that if large swaths of these governments can be superseded by AI itself—which they're abundantly aware of—then over time we'll see their size organically shrink (but I would anticipate that shrinking to be preceded by an explosive growth first—just like an animal will puff itself up as a defense mechanism). The money to labs is another fear/panic move: fork over money to your destructor so that it's more benevolent towards your favor when it finally brings down the hammer—that's why they tried to assert dominance over Mythos, etc (appear strong when you're weak). That may sound crazy to someone technical, but realize, most of the people coming into contact with this stuff think it's fucking HAL 9000. Assuming that foreign competition makes the frontier labs irrelevant (based on my own recent experiments w/ stuff like Kimi K3, this is increasingly likely) or at least, not worthy of current domestic investment levels, you'll see a pullback in the markets. The markets are the only gunpowder the current day government has for propping up their illusion. If that goes, psychologically, it will be impossible to convince most citizens short of direct violence that they need to remain in power much longer. I'm not presenting this as a "tomorrow" or "ten years from now" shift. I'd guess this will be more on order of 30-50 years, stair stepped. And in the step down, I anticipate full bore authoritarian chaos as the candy and toys get taken away. Maybe even a dictator or two emerging in the places we'd least expect. So, I would read this less as "reading my crystal ball" and more like "some internet guy's moderately schizophrenic read on the current state of chaos."
- phendrenad2 1mo agoLaw enforcement are underpaid, overworked, and they aren't even respected anymore. A lot are fine, but a lot of people are ending up there because they can't get any other job [1]. I don't think these attacks on freedom are always malicious, I think a lot of it is people in law enforcement who aren't capable of understanding the not-so-subtle difference between "law enforcement" and "law authority". [1] - See stories from 20 years ago about people being turned away from law enforcement roles for having "too high an IQ". Or recent stories (such as one I heard on the podcast of a former FBI agent) about new recruits who can't read.
- tptacek 1mo agoSo far as I can tell --- and someone challenged me on this recently, saying they'd been in court over a case related to it, so take this with a small grain of salt --- this "too high IQ" thing happened once, in New London CT, and if that's really the only documented case you have to wonder whether it wasn't just New London making an excuse for why they didn't hire someone they just didn't like the vibes of. I can say with assurance that there's no "IQ cap" in cop hiring around here; there's a standardized assessment, and there's no score cap on it. I wince at the disrespect shown to the profession on message board threads (in part because it feels like a self-fulfilling prophecy, and in part because it's so clear that the people expressing that disrespect would be less happy if they couldn't make these arguments --- i.e., they want policing to be bad), but normal people love police. Our resident beat officer showed up at our block parties and was a minor celebrity.
- phendrenad2 1mo agoThis is what makes it such a fiendishly difficult issue. The problem is machine politics and corruption that steals money that should go to police forces and instead goes to lawyers and politicians pockets. But you can't talk about it because the politicians and grifters twist it into "you're just anti-police".