This whole discussion of the US in general has got me thinking but your comment specifically really stood out to me. I know that these measures suck and all but is the US government really becoming as evil as people say?
If you at things historically you'll find people worrying that the US government is/was becoming tyrannical since the year our constitution was adopted. While I agree that the current Internet censorship debate should be taken seriously and I don't want any of these proposed laws to pass, if you take the long view you'll find that the history of the US is all about a series of battles for freedom. Some we win, some we lose but overall we've been heading in the right direction for a long time. It sounds silly but this can be likened to the posts that pop up on HN from time to time about how it's getting diluted and becoming lame. Some days trolls and idiots rule the day, others the smart folks take control and in general the community and their contributions have remained high quality since its inception.
So let's fight the good fight but maybe not go down the whole "this country is becoming the next [insert unpopular regime here]" road. Yesterday always seems like it was better than today, hindsight is 20/20, the grass is always greener, and all that.
I don't know - the nullification of the 4th Amendment thanks to the Patriot Act, and the recently voted 93-7 NDAA law that allows US military to arrest American citizens indefinitely without due process, is a pretty good start for totalitarianism don't you think?
And please don't use the argument "but if you didn't do anything wrong, then you have nothing to fear" because that completely misses the point.
No, I would never use the "if you didn't do anything wrong" argument. I'm not defending these messed up laws at all. I think they're awful like everyone else. All I'm saying is that if you take the long view you kind of see a pattern. People always feel like the past was better despite evidence to the contrary if you look at it. What I'm against is hyperbole. The country always seems to be going to hell but is it really? Things have gotten better overall. Women's rights, abolishment of slavery, civil rights movement. There are always these restrictive laws that come about and awful circumstances but in the end things get better. We had a terrible financial collapse and out of that was born Occupy Wall St. Maybe that movement will be the one that helps us move forward on the economic front just as those of us who are against internet censorship may, in the end, save freedom online. I just don't believe things are as bad as many would have us believe.
Well, actually, I think it has slowly become more tyrannical since about day 1. Maybe that's just a natural consequence of having a bunch of people whose whole job is to invent new laws.
I don't want to go all ad populum, but if people have been saying something for a long time, isn't it possible they've been right for a long time?
> I know that these measures suck and all but is the US government really becoming as evil as people say?
Your government (just like any other) is full of people who only care about their own personal gain. It's a slippery slope.
The Western world is full of politicians taking campaign donations (=bribes) in exchange for weaseling through whatever legislation their benefactors benefit from (at the expense of ordinary people), and that presents no problem for their consciences. Further along on the same road, there are places like Egypt, where the government tortures citizens to make an example of what happens when they have the audacity oppose their masters.
They want personal gain, and they want to maintain whatever machinery provides it to them. They're all just people though, the same human race all over. If an Egyptian homo sapiens is capable of abhorrent tyranny, so is an American one.
It's two opposing camps: the government against the governed. Just like in a war, the enemy is not really personified. It's just them vs us.
If hindsight is 20/20, then surely we should be realizing the the past sucked and not realizing why things suck today, giving the perpetual impression that we are improving.
I propose that hindsight is 20/20, and the fact that we don't think we are improving as a result says a great deal...
If you at things historically you'll find people worrying that the US government is/was becoming tyrannical since the year our constitution was adopted. While I agree that the current Internet censorship debate should be taken seriously and I don't want any of these proposed laws to pass, if you take the long view you'll find that the history of the US is all about a series of battles for freedom. Some we win, some we lose but overall we've been heading in the right direction for a long time. It sounds silly but this can be likened to the posts that pop up on HN from time to time about how it's getting diluted and becoming lame. Some days trolls and idiots rule the day, others the smart folks take control and in general the community and their contributions have remained high quality since its inception.
So let's fight the good fight but maybe not go down the whole "this country is becoming the next [insert unpopular regime here]" road. Yesterday always seems like it was better than today, hindsight is 20/20, the grass is always greener, and all that.