Quote:
Originally Posted by Rochard
(Post 19624510)
One of the things I find amazing is how people can live in the same place and still live worlds apart.
I live in the US, Northern California. I get up in the morning, do what I want to do, go where I want to go, and no one tells me no. Law enforcement doesn't bother me, the government doesn't hassle me, nothing. The only contact I have with our government is when get on an airplane they search me, and when I pay my taxes. Otherwise I am free to fap fap fap all day long.
Then we have Robbie - whom I really do like. I think he lives in Vegas. He seems to think that the government is out to get him and attempts to violate his rights every chance they get.
Even better yet is my gun nut friend here in town. We live in the same exact town, 40k people, low crime rate, and he's "concerned about protecting his family" and has a dozen firearms in his house. Every Saturday morning he's down at the local range shooting his "babies". Yet here I am, four blocks away, and I have no fear.
It's all about perspective I guess.
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You make a valid point. I'm not being sarcastic here either. I partially agree with you.
Here comes a little sarcasm though:
Do you think there were negro slaves that weren't punished and thought that they didn't have it so bad because as long as they followed the rules they weren't lynched, beaten, etc ? So much so that they would tell other negro slaves, hey, I can do what I want as long as I don't do what the massa tells me not to do, why don't you get with the program and stop bringing the bad shit on yoself. ?
The thing about rights is, by the time the majority of people NEED them, they were gone long ago and it's way too late to call them back. It's the whole .. let 100 guilty go free rather than punish one innocent man thing. To stretch the metaphor a little, we're at several innocent men here, and you're just glad it wasn't you and figure it probably won't be you for your lifetime so who cares.
Also, taxing you and deciding how to spend that money is actually a very large imposition and responsibility that you *submit* to.
Your constitution guarantees you the right to rise up against a tyrannical government. But your police state (and you are on that road with the erosion of rights against search and seizure and others) wants to prevent that at all costs, regardless of the color of right of your own government.
If there comes a day when the US government actually BECOMES tyrannical in your personal opinion Rochard, not by somebody elses fearful imagination, but by your own values, what would you do? And where would the brakes have failed to halt that process do you think? It's not fair to say "oh well that would never happen".
To be honest my opinion isn't set in stone so I'm actually eager to hear your thoughts here.
EDIT: Just to clarify, I have as much contempt for wehateporn and the other CT's on here, so I'm no illuminati mumbler wacko here. But I do see an erosion of your rights and I fear for where that *could* go given enough time and incentive. Such as a crumbling economy, and increasing religious and racial tensions. And a greater and greater divide between the have's and the have-not's.