4 ms·
Well said. I'm a techie but I also have a protest past (don't actively engage in that anymore but support in other ways) and I wasn't aware of the situation in
by geuis 13y ago
Well said. I'm a techie but I also have a protest past (don't actively engage in that anymore but support in other ways) and I wasn't aware of the situation in Singapore. I think we saw a lot of this in the US after 9/11 when Bush went from being a 1-term joke to suddenly having clout.
What many younger people here might not know is that only 12 years ago, life in the US was different. You could board planes without going through ridiculous levels of non-security. Your family could actually meet you as you came off the plane. In the first week after 9/11, there was a global outpouring of support for us. There were candlelight vigils held in places like Tehran, Iran for us. In the first few weeks after, there was a growing feeling that maybe this was finally the time that the US would straighten out and take a deep and serious look at our own actions and policies. As you can see, that didn't happen.
We got "buy more stuff" from the president. Indefinite detentions. Men who are still in a prison in Cuba who were kidnapped from their own countries. Whether guilty of something or not, they should have been tried years ago.
We get the FTAA protests in Miami. You get the Democratic convention in Boston and "freedom areas".
You get the Boston of just a couple months ago. A massive police and state over reaction to find one young man. At no other time in American history has an entire metropolitan city of that size been systematically shut down to find one criminal. And everyone went along with it to "feel safe".
Have kids? There's an overwhelmingly large but amorphous in number group of pedophiles waiting to get their hands on them.
You get fear. Be Afraid is the message. And young people have been taught that for so long now, and now they can vote and have kids. And this is how culture changes and restricts.
If you follow Occupy, that didn't start recently. That was going back at least as far as Seattle in 1999.
Don't be afraid. People die and get hurt. Sometimes it's other people that do it to others. Our freedoms collectively are more important than our deaths individually.
As has been said many times before, I may not like what you have to say but I'll punch someone in the nose to make sure you are able to say it.
- ars 13y ago> In the first few weeks after, there was a growing feeling that maybe this was finally the time that the US would straighten out and take a deep and serious look at our own actions and policies. I agree we did overreact, but this sentence is just nonsense. Are you really implying that our actions and policies are what caused muslims to hate us, and that therefor we should change them???????????
- anonymousab 13y agowhat Dicking around in a country or region's political and economic affairs can certainly lead people there to hate you. You certainly can't think the US didn't have its hands mucking about the middle-east before 9/11.
- wnight 13y ago> "caused muslims to hate us" Well, that's a few simultaneous fallacies. But, yes, your policies led to the 9/11 attackers deciding to attack you. Is this not blisteringly obvious? > and that therefor we should change them??????????? Oh gosh no, change? Not mid-stream.
- Tangaroa 13y ago> But, yes, your policies led to the 9/11 attackers deciding to attack you. Is this not blisteringly obvious? In exactly the same way that wearing miniskirts leads to rape. Take for example UBL's main grievance: the presence of the international Desert Shield force, or as UBL put it, allowing infidels to live in the land of the two holy cities. That force was there at the request of King Saud of Arabia. So what makes this agreement between King Saud and 30+ other powers a valid cause for the King's subjects, or anybody else, to wage war against the US? What makes Usama bin Laden the superior authority to say who is allowed to live in Arabia? What justifies forbidding people from holding any other religious belief than the approved one? What makes Usama bin Laden the sole authority on religious matters in Arabia who can decide what religion people are allowed to believe?
- Ygg2 13y agoEhm, didn't USA support Israel which was/is very hostile towards Muslims living on its territory (Gaza Strip)? So it's not like their politics weren't giving Al-Queda a reason to be provoked. To use your metaphor, it's a lot like wearing a miniskirt and flashing the perpetrator. Neither side is really 100% clean in this.
- wnight 13y ago> same way that wearing miniskirts leads to rape. No, not at all. That's the dumbest thing someone has said on here in weeks. You should be ashamed. The miniskirt analogy is to describe someone innocent and helpless! > That force was there at the request of King Saud Wow, who could disagree with a monarch? Especially an oil-rich one looking for foreign protectors. > What justifies forbidding people from holding any other religious belief than the approved one? Nobody is. This is where you can't stand to lose so you start lying and throwing in irrelevant things. > What makes Usama bin Laden the superior authority to say who is allowed to live in Arabia? What makes you the authority? Bush is more of a religious fanatic, and killed over two-hundred times more people than Osama. Anyways, yes, they did attack you for things you did. You can act like a child "I'm just swinging my fist - too bad if it hits your nose" or you can realize the impacts of your actions, and that yes, people will react to them. Even if you disagree you can see learn to see it coming.
- lysol 13y agoBoston wasn't systematically shut down -- The call to stay indoors was voluntary. There were plenty of people out, plenty of pictures from people shooting photos of deserted freeways and streets. Not that I disagree with your overall sentiment.
- geuis 13y agoNoted. Interesting, my perception was much more authoritarian. I'll admit to some bias on my part when everything seems over handed.
- mc-lovin 13y agoYou should also look into the "door to door searches", that was a more serious issue, especially since there is a real danger of a slippery slope for this particular policing strategy.