4 ms·

Things are getting worse. This is not the country I expected to grow up into. People here grumble a lot but don't do anything about it. Most people are only pas

by geuis 13y ago

Things are getting worse. This is not the country I expected to grow up into. People here grumble a lot but don't do anything about it. Most people are only passingly aware of things like government spying, police excesses, etc. Except when it happens to them. All I can hope is that it gets bad enough that enough people collectively say "Enough" and things get better again. It's a long road.

rocky1138 13y ago
"If there was hope, it must lie in the Proles..."
- geuis 13y ago
  I feel like I should know that. Where is it from?
  - jfb 13y ago
    1984
  - kaoD 13y ago
    1984
- john_b 13y ago
  Unfortunately, that is still an apt observation, and I imagine that most government agencies are well aware of this. People in general just don't protest when intangible, abstract things are stolen from them. Most people who are up in arms about the privacy and other rights violations of the past decade are highly educated, mild mannered, and small in numbers. If there was a decade long shortage of clean water, if unemployment was > 30%, or if the FCC outlawed reality television [1], then people might lose it and demand change. But the intangible theft of one's rights in a (presently) nonviolent way just doesn't register on the radar for most people. [1] Unless it was "to protect the children" of course.
justin66 13y ago
> Things are getting worse. I can see why you might feel that way but, in the long-term big picture, no, they're really not. There was a time when law enforcement wasn't required to recognize your right to be silent, for example, and most of the civil rights advances of the sixties still hold. Civil forfeiture is dangerous and relatively new, but there was plenty of dangerous stuff back in the day. Now, the fact that things could be a lot worse is depressing in a whole different way...
acdha 13y ago
I think the main difference here is that you're aware of the problem: if you were a minority race or religion, this is an old story which has actually gotten better in some ways because now the news spreads rather than being quietly confined to where you live.

by geuis 13y ago

rocky1138 13y ago

"If there was hope, it must lie in the Proles..."

geuis 13y ago
I feel like I should know that. Where is it from?
- jfb 13y ago
  1984
- kaoD 13y ago
  1984
john_b 13y ago
Unfortunately, that is still an apt observation, and I imagine that most government agencies are well aware of this. People in general just don't protest when intangible, abstract things are stolen from them. Most people who are up in arms about the privacy and other rights violations of the past decade are highly educated, mild mannered, and small in numbers. If there was a decade long shortage of clean water, if unemployment was > 30%, or if the FCC outlawed reality television [1], then people might lose it and demand change. But the intangible theft of one's rights in a (presently) nonviolent way just doesn't register on the radar for most people. [1] Unless it was "to protect the children" of course.

justin66 13y ago

> Things are getting worse. I can see why you might feel that way but, in the long-term big picture, no, they're really not. There was a time when law enforcement wasn't required to recognize your right to be silent, for example, and most of the civil rights advances of the sixties still hold. Civil forfeiture is dangerous and relatively new, but there was plenty of dangerous stuff back in the day. Now, the fact that things could be a lot worse is depressing in a whole different way...

acdha 13y ago

I think the main difference here is that you're aware of the problem: if you were a minority race or religion, this is an old story which has actually gotten better in some ways because now the news spreads rather than being quietly confined to where you live.