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From the Vox:
Many American pundits seem to firmly believe that the country stands at a precipice in which young, left-wing college students and recent graduates are the leading edge of a rising tide of illiberalism that comes in the form of “political correctness” and poses a clear and present danger to free speech and rational discourse.
[...] The alarm about student protesters, in other words, though not always mistaken about particular cases, is generally grounded in a completely mistaken view of the big-picture state of American society and public opinion, both on and off campus.
[...] Since the 1970s, the General Social Survey has posed a question about whether five hypothetical speakers should be allowed to give a speech in your community — a communist, a homosexual, an opponent of all religion, a racist, and a person who favors replacing the elected government with a military coup.
Justin Murphy of the University of Southampton in the United Kingdom aggregated trend data about all five kinds of speakers and found that public support for free expression has been generally rising
(Score: 1, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday March 25 2018, @08:23PM (14 children)
The 2nd Amendment guarantees that for the entire Planet.
Unlike the empires of yore, the United States will endure for many more millennia, for the simple fact that the common folk of America could make the insurgency in Iraq or Afghanistan or Vietnam (or wherever) look like a child's game.
And, hanging on for dear life to the coat-tails of Uncle Sam, the rest of the world will continue to be dragged kicking and screaming into a world of ever-greater respect for the rights of the individual, chief of which are the rights of each individual to Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness (i.e., the Pursuit of Self-Interest).
(Score: 2) by fyngyrz on Sunday March 25 2018, @09:53PM
...found the optimist. Sigh.
(Score: 2) by Runaway1956 on Sunday March 25 2018, @10:21PM (1 child)
I don't share your optimism.
(Score: 5, Funny) by driverless on Monday March 26 2018, @03:07AM
I don't share my optimism either. Get some of your own, ya greedy bugger.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Kell on Monday March 26 2018, @12:23AM
Wait... so random Americans having guns means the rest of the world is safe? Riiiiight. I think you grotesquely overestimate the influence of the United States. Afterall there are plenty of examples of regimes that have been running for decades that have completely ignored principles of American liberty while trampling the rights of individuals. Sorry, America - most of the world doesn't care two shits what your citizens do. In fact, the only real sway they have is what their military adventurism and nuclear armageddon gives them. And that is really proving the exact opposite point: the action of the individual against the central government is meaningless; only the central government has the resources to affect the policies of nations elsewhere around the globe.
Scientists ask questions. Engineers solve problems.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by Mykl on Monday March 26 2018, @03:01AM (4 children)
You sure as shit did nothing when the TSA moved into town. Or when your police forces started buying military equipment. Or when the NSA was shown to run a surveillance operation that even George Orwell would be horrified by.
Nope - as long as you can drive your pickup truck down to the KFC to get a bucket of chicken to eat while watching Monday night Wrestling, you ain't gonna do nothin'.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @03:54AM (1 child)
Yup. Look about right.
(Score: 2) by srobert on Monday March 26 2018, @05:37PM
Take a good look at that handwritten Preamble. It actually says "Purfuit of Happinefs".
But then again a good look at Cap'n Crunch reveals that his eyebrows are on his hat.
(Score: 4, Interesting) by bobthecimmerian on Monday March 26 2018, @04:24PM (1 child)
Militarized police, NSA surveillance, and the TSA are only bad when a Democrat is president.
US politics, just like anywhere else, is more complicated than simple tribalism. But at it's heart I would say tribalism is killing us. And my impression - as a member of neither party - is that the Republicans are worse because within their main factions (which I would call 'mainstream' and 'Tea Party') dissenting with the leaders is savagely condemned. The Democrats, for all of their many, many problems, don't have the same problem to the same decree. Granted, the Democrat lack of fanatical unity is probably why they lost power from 2010 to present.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday March 27 2018, @02:33AM
yes, the reason people don't do nothin' is because they are brainwashed into thinking things are still relatively ok. these people think funding the IRS helps the nation and it's people and overall those funds are used for good. the rest are sell outs who just want their 30 pieces of silver. if the brainwashed patriotic types could be woken up they would get off their asses. they are deeply brainwashed though. these are the morons who think passing concealed carry permit laws gives them more gun rights when the whole thing is an obvious ploy to turn a right into a privilege. it's all pretty depressing. just look at this fosta bill BS. two fucking americans. the rest are scum, or stupid as shit.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @07:49AM
I don't think the current view of the second amendment allows for nearly the kind of weapons (AK47's and RPG's) that the insurgents of those countries like to use.
Meanwhile, when we want to stop insurgents with those kinds of weapons, we send a tiny fraction of the US military. Now imagine using hand guns rather than AK47's and RPG's against the entire US military...
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @08:02AM (2 children)
So how will your guns help against something like this? [youtube.com]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @09:08AM
That is the real question.
(Score: 1) by khallow on Monday March 26 2018, @03:41PM
Why defend against them when you can use them instead? Overpriced and can used by the insurgency. What's not to love?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday March 26 2018, @02:25PM
Yeah right. You could have a pile of guns in every backyard but it won't do any good as long as Americans are completely fooled by even the tiniest bit of flimsy propaganda. You're a standing army of morons ready to ruin not defend.