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A Vancouver man was denied entry into the United States after a US Customs and Border Patrol officer read his profiles on the gay hookup app Scruff and the website BBRT.
[...] André, a 30-year-old Vancouver set decorator who declined to give his full name for fear of retaliation from US Customs, describes the experience as "humiliating."[He] says he was planning to visit his boyfriend, who was working in New Orleans. But when he was going through Customs preclearance at Vancouver airport last October, he was selected for secondary inspection, where an officer took his phone, computer and other possessions, and demanded the passwords for his devices.
"I didn't know what to do. I was scared, so I gave them the password and then I sat there for at least an hour or two. I missed my flight," André says. "He came back and just started grilling me. 'Is this your email?' and it was an email attached to a Craigslist account for sex ads. He asked me, 'Is this your account on Scruff? Is this you on BBRT?' I was like, 'Yes, this is me.'"
[...] "I could tell just by his nature that he had no intentions of letting me through. They were just going to keep asking me questions looking for something," he says. "So I asked for the interrogation to stop. I asked if I go back to Canada am I barred for life? He said no, so I accepted that offer."
A month later, André attempted to fly to New Orleans again. This time, he brought what he thought was ample proof that he was not a sex worker: letters from his employer, pay stubs, bank statements, a lease agreement and phone contracts to prove he intended to return to Canada.
When he went through secondary inspection at Vancouver airport, US Customs officers didn't even need to ask for his passwords — they were saved in their own system. But André had wiped his phone of sex apps, browser history and messages, thinking that would dispel any suggestion he was looking for sex work. Instead, the border officers took that as suspicious.
-- submitted from IRC
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @05:29AM (31 children)
Government is not just a monopoly; it's one that is violently imposed.
(Score: 4, Touché) by Grishnakh on Monday February 27 2017, @05:47AM (13 children)
The problem with your "gub'mint is evil!!!" notion is that people in civilized countries don't seem to have this problem.
(Score: 3, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @05:52AM (11 children)
You'll never be able to square that circle.
Organizing society around taxation is the last vestige of humanity's barbaric, uncivilized origins; if you consider yourself to be "civilized", then surely you are interested in figuring out how to organize society around voluntary agreements rather than coercive dictates.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by c0lo on Monday February 27 2017, @06:09AM (10 children)
(idiotic)
Taxation has more than one reason to exist. Wealth redistribution, common infrastructure everyone benefits from, etc.
Scandinavian countries have quite a high taxation rate, and they are living a better quality life than USians, in spite of having less natural resources than US.
On the other side, if you value individualism and competition more than cooperation, you'll never get your head around the idea the "taxation is not necessary theft". So continue to stick your head into the sand, be happy... as long as it would last, 'cause it may not last long.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0, Troll) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @07:13AM (6 children)
As with any complex phenomenon, society evolves by variation and selection; it is through competition that society as a whole cooperates to find solutions to problems that no one necessarily even knows exist.
"Wealth resdistribution"... you mean THEFT? Here's the deal, we're not discussing "higher quality" of life; we're discussion the nature of civilization—and civilization cannot possibly be something that is based around violently imposed, coercive dictates.
(Score: 5, Touché) by c0lo on Monday February 27 2017, @07:38AM (4 children)
Yeah, mate, I know. War is peace, freedom is slavery and ignorance is strength. I read the textbook.
Yeah, heck, let's invent problems, because nature doesn't provide enough challenges.
No, I mean wealth redistribution. A thing that makes a society balanced and sustainable over long periods of time within a system with limited resources
Discuss whatever you like, but not with me.
KTHXBY
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoFiw2jMy-0
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @09:08AM (1 child)
I have found that a lot of confusion goes away when we think of money as power in tangible form. Government immediately becomes a nothing but a powerful being laying down laws for the powerless. Rich becomes powerful, richest becomes powerful enough to negotiate with government. Socialism becomes a system where no individual is powerful enough to negotiate with government. Communism becomes a system where only government is powerful etc. In this framework the need of taxation becomes obvious as the only tool in the hands of people to stop a handful of lucky assholes monopolizing power.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @09:39AM
Relevant xkcd [xkcd.com].
If you push faulty analogies enough, they'll break. Some, like this one, earlier than others.
(Score: 5, Insightful) by TheRaven on Monday February 27 2017, @12:18PM (1 child)
No, I mean wealth redistribution
The problem with the term 'wealth redistribution' is that we only use it when we mean wealth moving from people who have accumulated wealth to people who have not. We don't talk about wealth redistribution when we mean someone who inherited a few million getting more in rent from the properties that he bought with that money than most people earn working a full-time job. We don't talk about wealth redistribution when we're talking about the owners of a monopoly taking a cut of all of the income from working people. We only talk about wealth redistribution when we're talking about taking some money from people who have benefitted the most from the infrastructure of a modern society and using it to improve the lives of the people that have benefitted the least.
sudo mod me up
(Score: 4, Insightful) by art guerrilla on Monday February 27 2017, @01:52PM
no, what we don't talk about when we talk about 'wealth distribution' in any meaningful way, is that it is the 99% who are getting fleeced at every turn in this society/gummint, with the .01-1% taking virtually ALL the gains...
in reality, 'wealth distribution' effectively has a diode built into the system, where it only travels one way: UP, there is no 'trickle down', kampers...
production goes up, hours go up, efficiency goes up, automation goes up, AND virtually ALL the wealth goes up; up to the .01%, NOT -i would say obviously, but some people (the 25% who are authoritarians, mostly) defend a system which screws them- to the people who ACTUALLY did the work, ACTUALLY made the widgets, ACTUALLY performed the services, no, it goes to the rentier klass who have a stranglehold on the finances/capital...
regardless, we have a world run by the 1% for the benefit and convenience of the 1%...
will the sheeple wake before the technological means of total authoritarian control is completed ? ? ?
actually, i don't think so, too fat, too lazy, too stupid...
welcome to dystopia...
(Score: 2) by q.kontinuum on Monday February 27 2017, @08:09AM
Competition *is* cooperation
Competition is based on egoism. That's why we need a strong state able to enforce the monopoly on violence, a strong separation between legislative, judiciary and executive (to avoid an egoistic government to take advantage of their powers) and good educational system, to help people understand the ramifications of loss of state control.
In any big enough group whithout enforced laws (=strong enough state) some individuals will see the competitive advantage of building alliances to subdue outside individuals (or smaller alliances). No matter what the means of control are (religion, violence, ownership of mandatory resources), the end will always be feudalism / slavery. Only the ultimate alliance (=state, for now, world government somewhere in the future (?)) can end this, and that can only be stable if the masses have enough influence to change the system from within.
(For smaller groups it iften works to appeal to common sence, empathy and fairness)
Registered IRC nick on chat.soylentnews.org: qkontinuum
(Score: 3, Funny) by Whoever on Monday February 27 2017, @03:34PM
Yeah, but I bet they have a much smaller proportion of billionaires. Where would society be without the billionaires to hoard money and resources?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @09:33PM (1 child)
Redistribution of wealth is not a legitimate use of taxation.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @09:59PM
AC dixit, thus so it should be, ey?
('xept authoritarianism doesn't work that well when the "would-be authority" is anonymous)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @05:06PM
And I'm considering leaving merka for one of those civilized countries.
Merka used to be, but not since the nazis took over.
(Score: 2, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @06:45AM (15 children)
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @07:07AM (14 children)
Try again.
(Score: 1) by charon on Monday February 27 2017, @08:30AM (7 children)
Bwahahahahahahahahahahahaha. That was a good one.
So, when are you libertarians going to move to Galt's Gulch anyway? Drop me a line to let me know which billionaire volunteers to wash the dishes after dinner.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 27 2017, @08:55AM (6 children)
Even poor people have dishwasher machines, charon.
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 2) by MostCynical on Monday February 27 2017, @11:42AM (1 child)
Ok, but who cleared the table and filled the dishwasher?
"I guess once you start doubting, there's no end to it." -Batou, Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex
(Score: 3, Touché) by takyon on Monday February 27 2017, @01:04PM
Amazonk Prometheans [soylentnews.org]
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @01:17PM (1 child)
Source. [bash.org]
(Score: 2) by Thexalon on Monday February 27 2017, @09:18PM
So about half of everything you own, then?
The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @04:21PM (1 child)
> Even poor people have dishwasher machines
What? In the US? Not a chance.
Sure, some poor people do.
But many, probably a majority, do not.
(Score: 2) by takyon on Monday February 27 2017, @06:47PM
Even (implicit "some") poor people have dishwasher machines (therefore a billionaire can afford them).
That was hard!
[SIG] 10/28/2017: Soylent Upgrade v14 [soylentnews.org]
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @11:05AM (5 children)
A warlord is government
And there's the huge elephant in the room that people like you ignore or don't see:
Once there's enough people around you're going to get some form of government anyway. Whether you like it or not.
So if you're not suggesting that everyone live alone on their own island or similar you should be thinking of ways to get a better government.
Too many retards keep barking up the wrong tree railing against Big Government and trying to get a smaller government as if it would help.
It's not the quantity of Government that makes it good or bad, it's the quality. You'd be screwed just as much if not more by a small corrupt government in league with large corrupt organizations. There's no right to bear arms in Disneyland. The FOIA does not apply to Apple or Monsanto. CorporateLand might not even pretend you have freedom of speech.
(Score: -1, Redundant) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @01:56PM (4 children)
The problem is always that there is a monopoly, one that is violently imposed. This is a cultural problem; the worship of such a monopoly is a vestige of humanity's ancient, barbaric, tribal, superstitious, uncivilized origins.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @03:44PM (2 children)
Ugh, that's all you've got? After all the discussion it still boils down to "violently imposed monopoly" of the government?
Government is actually the single most important aspect of civilization. The laws against murder, and the ability to enforce those laws, are actually the only thing stopping humanity's vestigial barbarism.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @05:00PM (1 child)
Governments don't STOP much of anything. They START a lot of mass-murder, also known as war.
Try looking up Warren vs D.C. sometime. Governments not only don't care about YOU or YOUR safety, they've explicitly said so. That you seem to believe otherwise is a lie you've swallowed.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @05:10PM
Governments are men; they are not angels. Governments are warlords. Men are warlords. Men are neither angels nor governed by angels. Does that help?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Monday February 27 2017, @05:07PM
You always become so boring. You haven't given us enough to help us see how men would become angels so that they do not impose their wills on one another through violence.
The best solution we've come up with is the one big warlord, that violently imposed monopoly. Violence cannot be removed, which is our stumbling block. Perhaps humans are not evolved enough. (Again, assuming humans might evolve into angels.)
(Score: 2) by Wootery on Monday February 27 2017, @01:48PM
Come on then, let's have it. Vent your anarchist nonsense and be done with it.