Post: #26

(11-29-2013 02:49 AM)Vendetta Wrote:  It seems odd that I, as a British person, seem to care more about America freeing itself from tyranny than some American's do!

We freed ourselves from tyranny in 1776.

Now go bow to your queen.

Post: #27

(11-29-2013 02:49 AM)Vendetta Wrote:  It seems odd that I, as a British person, seem to care more about America freeing itself from tyranny than some American's do!

Nothing more patronizing than a young paranoid who's in on a "secret" from a KGB YOUTUBE VIDEO...

"Para noia" can be a style as well as a psychotic state. You can choose to focus on the .01% making billions, or the "L-I-B-R-U-L-S" who want to take away your guns, you can focus on whatever you like, but first be sure that's what you want your mindspace and time to be filled up with, because "Time is all you got" ( Ry Cooder)

Post: #28

(11-29-2013 02:14 PM)j r Wrote:  When exactly was this republic more free? Was it more free in the days of slavery and Jim Crow? Was it more free when men were dirt farmers in perpetual debt to banks or coal miners in debt to the company store?

When was politics not controlled by an oligarchical elite? The 1960s were the first time that the Presidential candidates were selected by primaries as opposed to explicitly picked in back room deals by party bosses.

Some of you guys have nostalgia for a time that never existed.

I think you'd benefit a great deal from reading Tocqueville, Putnam (who got his ideas from Banfield) and Charles Murray.

This is not doom-saying, society really is decaying and we can show it qualitatively and quantitatively.

Of course some things are better, some are worse. I'm arguing the net-effect is negative, as well as many of the top researchers.

One reason, among many, is that the GOP is controlled by oligarchical elite, the Democrats by a coalition of minorties bent on plundering/displacing the European Americans. It's not super complicated.

Post: #29

(11-29-2013 02:14 PM)j r Wrote:  When exactly was this republic more free? Was it more free in the days of slavery and Jim Crow? Was it more free when men were dirt farmers in perpetual debt to banks or coal miners in debt to the company store?

When was politics not controlled by an oligarchical elite? The 1960s were the first time that the Presidential candidates were selected by primaries as opposed to explicitly picked in back room deals by party bosses.

Some of you guys have nostalgia for a time that never existed.

lol. You confuse true freedom with material comfort. What good is the ease of material comfort when prosecutors have complete control over your life -- whether you realize it or not.

Congress has added about 55 new crimes to the federal criminal code each year since the 1980s. There are now about 4,500 separate federal crimes. In Texas alone, there are 2,383 felonies. According to CNN, on January 1st, 2010, 40,697 new laws came into effect.

Quote:In his new book, the Boston-based civil liberties advocate and occasional Reason contributor Harvey Silverglate estimates that in 2009, the average American commits about three federal felonies per day. And yet, we aren’t a nation of degenerates. On the contrary, most social indicators have been moving in a positive direction for a generation. Silverglate argues we're committing these crimes unwittingly. The federal criminal code has become so vast and open to interpretation, Silverglate argues, that a U.S. Attorney can find a way to charge just about anyone with violating federal law. In fact, it's nearly impossible for some business owners to comply with one federal regulation without violating another one. We're no longer governed by laws, we're governed by the whims of lawyers.

If you believe that that is living in freedom, you need to swallow the red pill and wake up.

Post: #30

(11-28-2013 11:03 AM)iknowexactly Wrote:  It's easy to say "Everything's going to hell." It's a low-investment way to get people to pay attention to you.
You can present yourself as being concerned, having foresight, being intelligent because you know some doom-and-gloom statistics.

The problem with doom-sayers becomes obvious when you notice that the Edisons, the Teslas, the Bill Gates-- the people that GET SHIT DONE don't talk or think like this.

Add to that the fact that most doom-sayers are depressed and projecting that onto the society around them, or selling a book about how to avoid the doom they foretell, AND in all of recorded history there's someone freaking out and the malls are still full... it becomes obvious to me who I should listen to.

It's a lot more fun listening to the doers than the doom-sayers.

consider reading more about Tesla and reading more history.

Post: #31

No reason to be alarmed. It's just a routine traffic stop. America is the freest country on earth.

   

Post: #32

Ex-KGB says "when the military boots crashes then he'll see" It remind me of a quote If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face - forever.

George Orwell

Post: #33

I'd suggest you read New Lies for Old by Anatoly Golitsyn. From Wikipedia:

Quote:New Lies for Old[edit]
In 1984, Golitsyn published the book New Lies For Old,[13] wherein he warned about a long-term deception strategy of seeming retreat from hard-line Communism designed to lull the West into a false sense of security, and finally economically cripple and diplomatically isolate the United States. Among other things, Golitsyn stated:
"The 'liberalization' [in the Soviet Union] would be spectacular and impressive. Formal pronouncements might be made about a reduction in the communist party's role; its monopoly would be apparently curtailed."
"If [liberalization] should be extended to East Germany, demolition of the Berlin Wall might even be contemplated."
"The European Parliament might become an all-European socialist parliament with representation from the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe. 'Europe from the Atlantic to the Urals' would turn out to be a neutral, socialist Europe."
Angleton and Golitsyn reportedly sought the assistance of William F. Buckley, Jr. (who once worked for the CIA) in writing New Lies for Old. Buckley refused but later went on to write a novel about Angleton, Spytime: The Undoing of James Jesus Angleton.[14]

Read the book myself, it seems to have been a somewhat accurate predictions of whatever happened after the 1980s.