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comment by mk

    That's really really scary.

No kidding, eh? That suggests that SOP is working outside of their SOP. I have little doubt that the NSA doesn't play the same game.





OftenBen  ·  3521 days ago  ·  link  ·  

So who do we trust to axe them a question? (Sarcasm, but only partially)

Are our only two options democratic reform, proven to be slow and ineffectual at best, or The Reign of Terror?

mk  ·  3521 days ago  ·  link  ·  

I don't know. Hopefully the Reign of Terror happens two doors down, and your leaders take the hint.

IMO the RoT is most likely when the system is no longer able to bend, and only breaks. To me, the most worrisome developments in the US aren't so much the policies that I don't like, but changes that prevent grass-root pressures from inducing those changes. The consolidation of media (due to the erosion of media market regulations), and the unfettered influence of money in legislation (i.e. Citizen's United), are the disease. I doesn't matter much if the symptoms agree or disagree with my politics when my politics were never considered. That's the ongoing folly of the American Right.

crafty  ·  3521 days ago  ·  link  ·  

"Those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable." - John F. Kennedy

I agree, it is very frustrating to see institutions stiffen with regards to grassroots pressures, but I think the ability for America to undergo peaceful revolution is still very much alive, even if it's perhaps diminished by the efforts of certain groups. I think it is important not to get caught up in the hyperbolic echo chamber with ideas like "There is nothing we can do!" or "It's time to behead them all!" What I try to do is really understand what is going on, staying factual and objective, and try to educate others about what's happening, so when the call to arms for a peaceful revolution does come around again (it has in the past, and I suspect it will happen again) there are the peaceful revolutionaries ready to take up the mantle for the right purposes and to the right ends.