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It does give off the smell that the US thinks it rules the world, doesn't it? (Not that it hasn't been an unspoken idea in everyone's minds for the past 50 year

It does give off the smell that the US thinks it rules the world, doesn't it? (Not that it hasn't been an unspoken idea in everyone's minds for the past 50 years, but it's still weird to see it played out in the open.)

javajosh 13y ago
Generally no-one really cared that the US ruled the world because, despite our flaws, we were the good guys. 9/11 changed that. We started torturing people. We started targeted killings. We started invading countries that hadn't lifted a finger. Now we spy on our citizens in secret, silence journalists, and we hunt-down the whistle-blowers who put it out in the open. And the rot is spreading. Selective application of the law is happening at all levels - HSBC launders billions, and pay a 300 million dollar fine, no jail time for anyone involved. But the DoJ defends its request for a 7 year felony jail sentence for Aaron Swarz for downloading academic journal content because, simply "he broke the law". Bank of America defrauds tens of thousands on their mortgages, and nothing. Snowden breaks the law to reveal systematic abuse of governmental power, and not only do our elected leaders (with a few exceptions) not come to his aid, but denounce him as a traitor and redouble their efforts to "hunt him down". At the local level, it seems that not a day goes by without some new evidence of abuse of local law-enforcement, such as that marshall who arrested a young woman for claiming that he'd harassed her, to a judge who didn't even acknowledge her existence. Osama bin Laden, looking up at us from hell, is laughing. With three planes and a few thousand deaths he managed to move the US, a country with over 300 million residents, toward the path of the Taliban: selective application of justice, system-wide corruption, amoral acts of torture and indefinite detention, system-wide abuse of our freedoms, and violent, ferocious pursuit of those who bring these abuses to wide-spread attention. We do rule the world, and for that reason I fear for us all.

javajosh 13y ago

Generally no-one really cared that the US ruled the world because, despite our flaws, we were the good guys. 9/11 changed that. We started torturing people. We started targeted killings. We started invading countries that hadn't lifted a finger. Now we spy on our citizens in secret, silence journalists, and we hunt-down the whistle-blowers who put it out in the open. And the rot is spreading. Selective application of the law is happening at all levels - HSBC launders billions, and pay a 300 million dollar fine, no jail time for anyone involved. But the DoJ defends its request for a 7 year felony jail sentence for Aaron Swarz for downloading academic journal content because, simply "he broke the law". Bank of America defrauds tens of thousands on their mortgages, and nothing. Snowden breaks the law to reveal systematic abuse of governmental power, and not only do our elected leaders (with a few exceptions) not come to his aid, but denounce him as a traitor and redouble their efforts to "hunt him down". At the local level, it seems that not a day goes by without some new evidence of abuse of local law-enforcement, such as that marshall who arrested a young woman for claiming that he'd harassed her, to a judge who didn't even acknowledge her existence. Osama bin Laden, looking up at us from hell, is laughing. With three planes and a few thousand deaths he managed to move the US, a country with over 300 million residents, toward the path of the Taliban: selective application of justice, system-wide corruption, amoral acts of torture and indefinite detention, system-wide abuse of our freedoms, and violent, ferocious pursuit of those who bring these abuses to wide-spread attention. We do rule the world, and for that reason I fear for us all.