http://www.wikileaks.org/the-spyfiles.html
http://www.businessinsider.com/ron-paul-and-the-tea-party-cant-save-you-2012-national-defense-act-is-terrifying-2011-12
I've always thought conspiracy theorists were crazy. And much the same for Anarchist young adults. I'd always hear them toss the phrase "Police State" around when in reference to my country. I never really believed it, but I'm not stupid either. I've always known that cell phone networks and the Internet are being monitored more than ever. And I knew it violated civil or human rights, but I always thought that it was just greed by corporations since the sell all the data the collect to market research firms for a fuckton of cash, and the eventually the law would catch up to them and that would end it. All I had to do was wait. But no more. Now I see as if I were once blind. Our government and many other governments actively use, store, and analyse all this illegally collected data too. And now they've passed a law that declares American soil a "battleground" and that any American citizen can be abducted by non-police military personnel and imprisoned indefinitely at any time without trial, without due process, and without habeas corpus. And the only reason that has to be given is that someone in the government just has to say that you are simply "suspicious." That's it. That's all they need to have marines busting down your door.
New net censorship and monitoring laws are being ramroded through the houses everyday. Now I feel like it's almost dangerous to speak against them. I feel scared, I feel powerless.
What can I do?
What can any of us do?
remember to vote?
>>2 nailed it
Also vote with your wallet, your computer, etc. Don't buy walled-garden style products that reduce you to electronic serfdom. Do not use fidelity cards, don't mindlessly give your data for peanuts. Evaluate the organisms in which you deposit your money, contract insurance, etc.
Don't be a mindless cow, running with the herd for fear of being singled out. You don't need to be a nutcase just because you become autonomous. It's actually the opposite. But be ready to cause surprise and some disquiet, this is the Shire, and many of our hairy footed neighbors mistrust diversity.
>>2
But voting does not matter.
http://edition.cnn.com/2011/11/18/politics/gerrymandering/index.html?reddit
>>4 untrue. Politicians need votes to get elected. But if you don't vote, you're nothing to a politician. If you want politicians to mind you (a bit), do vote. Of course, if you can bribe them (sorry lobby them), it works even better.
That the system is malfunctioning does not mean that it's useless to vote.
When the country has a 100% election turnout and the scumbags are still in power than you can claim voting doesn't matter.
Until then, things are the way they are because the populace at large doesn't fucking care enough to change them. And you're part of the problem.
To quote Goethe: "Misunderstandings and neglect create more confusion in this world than trickery and malice. At any rate, the last two are certainly much less frequent."
Re gerrymandering: Vote in the primaries. Even if one party is likely to win the seat, toss out their incumbent in favor of a dark horse that isn't ruled by special interests. Gerrymandering can't stop you from doing that- if you intend to actually fight for your beliefs in the political arena and not just be a whiny internet rebel from your mother's basement.
Voting changes nothing because of both gerrymandering and the puppet masters-I mean corporate sponsors- control both of the houses. If voting could change anything it would be iliegal.
The direction of capitalism, of society itself has always been totalitarian centralization of power and increase in commodity production.
The population will willingly give up its right to vote as long as the state continues to produce ever more stimulating commodities, which will inevitably replace all forms of interaction beyond a strategic sense. Eventually, even the ruling class will grow weak and complacent in turn to be replaced by more efficient machines who will be the final arbiters of the human race. In the end humanity will be cell-like organisms in constant chemical exchange tied to a larger creation which will function roughly like a human being. It does not matter who you vote for, what you do, your actions may only stall this inevitable outcome.
At least, this is what my bullshit theory is.
Always been that way in every place. Some people not joining in the cowardice and being awesome is the difference. That's what makes a better world. Politics has nothing to do with that, it's not borne out of providence, it's doomed from the start triumph and it's lovely while it lasts. Maybe it's the continued effort to make nice things that keeps it going, not heroes butchering cops etc.
10get
I'll support America being a police state as long as thread necromancy is made a capital crime.
>police states bad even tho it means more government control and less freedom