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but we don't spend life at the point of a gun. Don't we? I guess it varies depending on the neighborhood, but there are more guns in the U.S. than cell phones,
by vectorpush 13y ago
but we don't spend life at the point of a gun.
Don't we? I guess it varies depending on the neighborhood, but there are more guns in the U.S. than cell phones, and it's not just the government that's armed to the teeth, it's everyone from your local mugger to your local teenager (and I'm not just talking about school shooters, I'm talking about adults under 20 who legally hold as well as the range of kids illegally blasting themselves and others in the streets).
This is all to say, I agree with the parent; you can't close Pandora's box. Mass surveillance is quickly becoming too cheap not to be inevitable, not to mention that most people voluntarily crowdsource the surveillance behemoth by uploading their entire lives to facebook and passing everything else into google. One might argue that mass surveillance is already here, if it's a true dystopia remains to be seen.
https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/ https://maps.google.com/locationhistory/
- sentenza 13y agoIt's not like that in all countries, though. If the technology was inevitably reaching everybody, then guns would be readily available independently of cultural and political frame.
- vectorpush 13y agoWell no, guns aren't as ubiquitous around the world as they are in the U.S, but they're pervasive enough that every single despot around the world employs guns to the effect of realizing modern dystopias for the unlucky humans who are born into violent oppression. The "inevitability" phase of guns has long passed.
- paul_f 13y agoThe fact that guns are ubiquitous in the US means that an oppressive regime cannot use their monopoly on guns against the people. I'll take that side of the bargain any day.
- trekky1700 13y agoI've never quite understood this argument. I hardly think a Colt and a Wingmaster are going to help stop trained soldiers, drones, jets, tanks etc. It is ridiculous and ignorant of reality.
- mercurial 13y agoIt's all the more absurd when you realize there were plenty of guns in Iraq under Saddam Hussein. I'll also note that a high number of guns per inhabitants is not always correlated with a large number of firearms crimes (see Finland or Switzerland). On the other hand, you have enough examples of lunatics killing a large number of people with modern firearms that I feel a lot safer in a place with tight gun laws than I would feel elsewhere.