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What transpired in Turkey can easily happen in US. There are many dissatisfied people on either side of the political spectrum. Now more than ever, with higher
by salimmadjd 13y ago
What transpired in Turkey can easily happen in US. There are many dissatisfied people on either side of the political spectrum. Now more than ever, with higher unemployment and extensive communication channels, the risks are even higher.
But there are ways to keep the population at check:
1 - Utilize the fear of external entities (Iraq, terrorism, etc.) to channel away anxiety from domestic issues.
2 - pre-occupy the public, reality shows, sports, etc.
3 - Focus the problem on individuals to provide the election as a escape valve (Bush, Obama, etc.)
4 - Quickly stop or discredit any movement before it catches on like wild fire.
5 - Identify potential instigators and defuse them early if needed (shutdown bank account, credit card, ATM) terminate their phones and Internet-which is why you need this list.
, etc-which is why you need this list.
Edit:fixed formatting
- samstave 13y ago6 - (but really #1) Eliminate financial freedom of the populous. What do you think 2008 was about?
- salimmadjd 13y agoAgreed!
- MichaelMcQuirk 13y agoIs that not just giving them a reason to rebel?
- anigbrowl 13y agoConspiracy theorists tend to miss obvious things like that.
- Ihmahr 13y agoAre you calling Noam Chomsky a conspiracy theorists?
- twoodfin 13y agoHe might not have, but I sure will.
- flyinRyan 13y agoAmazing. Chomsky is a legend. Who are you exactly? Ignoring his entire career to simply dismiss him as a conspiracy theorist. Ignorance and apathy like yours is why the US has fallen into the hole it's in now.
- twoodfin 13y agoI'm not ignoring his entire career. He's one of the towering intellectuals of the 20th Century, and his work in linguistics has positively influenced a range of fields. But his views on politics and world affairs are extremely eccentric, and have remained on the fringe for a reason.
- flyinRyan 13y ago>and have remained on the fringe for a reason. Yea, for the same reason people who claimed the US was spying on everyone remained on the fringe.... until we had a bunch of evidence of it dropped on us.
- enraged_camel 13y ago>>But his views on politics and world affairs are extremely eccentric, and have remained on the fringe for a reason. They have remained on the fringe because most people would rather tell themselves that things are generally okay.
- PavlovsCat 13y agoSure. Like the Germans under Hitler rebelled against Poland and France, for example.
- university 13y agoNoam Chomsky calls it class warfare.
- trust-me 13y agoWhat are you talking about? Hello admins, this would be a good time to click that hell-ban button next to samstave ;)
- pekk 13y agoSuppose people are outraged by your comment (or the like) and decide to pursue various ways to stoke a civil war in the US. What outcome do you expect from this?
- Spearchucker 13y agoHistorically civil war (revolt/uprising) is only triggered when people can no longer feed themselves or their families. I can't find the link to that study anymore, so can't back this up.
- w_t_payne 13y agoI cannot remember the reference either ... but I seem to remember reports that food prices went up precipitously just before the Arab Spring. Anybody got a call option on agricultural commodities right now?
- trust-me 13y agoReally? Never heard of widespread starvation before the american colonies revolt or before the US civil war.
- tg3 13y agoThe American Civil War was largely centered around the issue of slavery, which the economies of the rebelling states relied on. The American Revolutionary War was a response to increased taxes that took a heavy economic burden on the colonists to pay for the Empire's wars. While widespread starvation might not have existed, it was certainly the threat of economic issues that sparked both conflicts.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]
- junto 13y agoErdogan refers to the Gezi Park protesters as terrorists. http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2013/jun/13/turkey-referendum-plan-mooted-as-erdo-an-sets-protesters-deadline-live-coverage http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/middle-east-live/2013/jun/13...
- omd 13y agoThe FBI refers to the Occupy protesters as terrorists. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/23/fbi-occupy-wall-street_n_2355883.html http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/12/23/fbi-occupy-wall-str...
- alan_cx 13y agoAssad calls the Syrian freedom fighters terrorists. Americans called the IRA freedom fighters. We Brits call them terrorists. South Africans called the ANC terrorists. Now look at Mandela.
- minikites 13y agoOne of our representatives openly supports the IRA: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_T._King#Support_for_the_IRA https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_T._King#Support_for_the_... sigh
- coldtea 13y agoSorry, the Syrian "freedom fighters" ARE terrorists. They are only "freedom fighters" for the US Media. Assad is not that good himself, but the "freedom fighters" are just a bunch of muslim fundamendalists that have slaughtered innocent people and have little popular support. The Syria situation is not like Egypt or Turkey.
- lolcraft 13y ago"During his time in Syria throughout much of 2012, videographer Robert King followed Aleppo's Al-Tawhid Brigade as he dodged bullets and rocket fire to learn more about the largest brigade of the Free Syrian Army. Somehow Robert managed to track down Haji-Mara, the Al-Tawhid Brigade's commander, for a rare interview, during which the former-businessman-turned-freedom-fighter espouses the many difficulties the rebels face against the alleged brutality of President Bashar al-Assad's regime." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CeP81s1KdM https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7CeP81s1KdM
- mikecane 13y ago>>>There are many dissatisfied people on either side of the political spectrum. Which is the entire point of the American Constitution. It was created by political malcontents for political malcontents. Having suffered under the brutality of the King, the Colonists drafted a document that would prevent such abuses in the future by enshrining it in law. That millions and millions of people who would "get along" under any regime (see North Korea today) benefited is strictly a collateral effect. That no one seems to understand the original point of it all is why we're going down this greased slide to hell today. And hell it will be.
- znowi 13y agoWatching common Americans being abused by their government and corporations for a decade now, with very little that came out of it, except a few protests / shows / petitions - I highly doubt a serious uprising is possible. Americans seemed to have lost their free spirit. Back in the 60s - that was a real movement. Real actions. Real spirit. Right now, most people, especially young (what's saddening), are conformists and as long as they feel relatively safe and well fed, they won't go far than writing a comment on HN... like this one :)
- einhverfr 13y agoI am of the opinion that any effective resistance against an oppressive takeover will not be military opposition, nor will it be violent. The problems of the future will not be solved by force of arms but by the radical actions of neighbors helping neighbors. I think that one of the huge problems of the modernist approach is that it supposes that the only levels are the individuals and the state. Family and community are seen as things to liberate people from. In the end, though, self-employment, family, and community are the ties that if we take care of them, they create the best options for the survival of a free state.
- shpxnvz 13y ago> Watching common Americans being abused by their government and corporations for a decade now, with very little that came out of it, except a few protests / shows / petitions - I highly doubt a serious uprising is possible. I think you're watching the wrong people. > Right now, most people, especially young (what's saddening), are conformists and as long as they feel relatively safe and well fed, they won't go far than writing a comment on HN... like this one :) This has always been the case - it's human nature. It was true in 1775, it was true in the 60's and it's true today. It's the minority who stand up that change the world.
- sporkologist 13y agoIn the 60's, many protestors were directly threatened by being drafted to go to Vietnam... so their motivations were much more vivid and literally life-threatening. What's going on today is arguably more threatening to our financial system and world ecology, but as you said, we're in general pretty comfortable and not as motivated as back then. If our government threatened to limit sales of alcohol (as in Turkey), among other extremely conservative laws, that would probably create a big reaction and protesting.
- coldtea 13y ago(6) engage the public in BS non-issues or peripheral issues, the two parties are putting a show of disagreeing about, from the debt ceiling to gay marriage to corporate taxes, etc, while they work hand in hand in all important aspects of fucking over the middle class.
- enraged_camel 13y agoI was at the coffee shop yesterday. One thing I like doing in between work sessions is to look around and observe people around me, and try to guess what their lives must be like. In this particular case though, I was looking at them within the context of the latest NSA scandal. There was a mother nursing her baby while trying to get some work done on her laptop. Did she care if the NSA is watching her? Probably not. She just had too much shit to think about. She was worried that her baby seemed to be getting sick. She was worried about being able to finish the report that was due the next day at work. She was worried about what she was going to cook for dinner that night, and whether her husband was able to catch his connecting flight in Chicago earlier. There was the overworked barrista, who was really busy trying to process the orders from a long line of customers. Did she care if the NSA was watching her? Probably not. She had been working non-stop for the past six hours, and half an hour before the end of her shift she suddenly had to deal with a large group of new customers, each of whom was cranky because they needed their fix of caffeine. She was thinking about whether the guy she gave her number to at the bar the previous night was going to text/call her soon, because he was really cute. She was thinking about whether she would be able to make it home in time to catch the latest episode of her favorite TV show. There were two guys sharing the table next to mine. One of them was wearing a full suit, and the other was in business casual. Judging by the bits of conversation I overheard, it was an informal job interview. Did the interviewee care if the NSA was watching him? Probably not. He was worried about a ton of other things, like being under-dressed for the interview and his growing need to use the restroom really badly. He was worried about whether the interviewer would hire him, because his bills were at serious risk of running overdue. His wife had also been texting him for the past half hour complaining about the dishwasher that stopped working. Now, these were just my guesses about these people, and they were most likely wrong. But in the grand scheme of things, I think my point stands: people are so fucking obsessed with their own little lives that they cannot raise their heads and look at - much less critically think about and analyze - what is going on around them. They don't have the type of mental bandwidth to even try to process the big picture. Their own piece of the puzzle and the immediate surrounding pieces are what demand their attention. I was talking to my roommate this past weekend as the NSA scandal was unfolding, and I asked her if she had heard. She said no. I was appalled. I wanted to scream at her "ARE YOU LIVING UNDER A ROCK?!?" But I couldn't. She works 12+ hour days, plus a 2 hour commute, and the rest of her time is taken up by volunteer projects she's leading in our neighborhood. How can I blame her for not having heard of some invisible party listening in on all her emails and phone calls and social media conversations? How can I blame her for not being worried about the insane implications of this surveillance and what it means for her country?