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Originally Posted by Mojo_PeiPei
Fair enough Rekna, but I pose that question in such form deliberately. Some people here are painting with a pretty broad brush, like there are some horrendous and blatant violations going on; as being apart of the citizenry that is being affecting I pose them selfishly, sorry.
What are some incidents were there are sweeping and gross violations of citizens liberty?
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Mojo, first of all, every post you make is combative and intentionally laden with smug insults ("the tin foil hat crew"), so do me a favor and try to correct that. It makes you sound opinionated to the point of obnoxiousness, which in turns encourages personal attacks rather than good debate.
Addressing your concerns, I am not saying that the US Government has already made gross transgressions on the liberties and freedoms of the American people. I am saying that because US Government power is becoming more centralized while at the same time becoming gradually more independant of the structural mechanisms of democracy in place to ensure the government acts in a way which reflects the society it presides over, rather than large powerful parties who could trade influence to mutually benefit a social elite, I am worried.
This is not to say that the Government will DEFINITELY be evil and abuse it's citizens. But, what incentive does any monopoly have to provide an ever-improving product at as low a price as possible to it's customers? It simply doesn't--altruism is not an inherent human quality. The government wants must always compete with society's wants, and together the things mutually agreed upon will be accepted as societial standards. This works because if the people don't like what's going on, they are free to organize, say whatever they want as publicly as they want, and rally society into voting into new representation which will change the rules society has become galvanized against. The US has already been through a historic period where citizens were for all intents and purposes censored from criticism of the government--it was called The McCarthy Era. I believe terrorism propaganda based public fear propaganda has many similarities to communist fear propaganda from decades ago--what's to stop history from repeating itself?
I believe it is the kind of citizen who will stand up and not allow the arbitrary monitoring of private conversations or transactions of fellow citizens by their government--even if by not having this capability the government is in a weaker position to defend the country.
A citizen who is willing to foregoe a little bit extra safety in exchange for not compromising the things which keep their guaranteed liberties truly guaranteed.
I hope this helps, please try to play nice.