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JDPriestly

(57,936 posts)
46. The police crackdown on the Occupiers was pretty horrible.
Mon Jun 24, 2013, 01:12 AM
Jun 2013

The executive has a reach into the metadata of everyone in every branch of government as well as every activist in every party, everyone with a political opinion or a complaint.
Wall Street colluded to fix interest rates and just about everything else and no one has been prosecuted.
Lenders committed fraud in order to foreclose on homeowners who had been goaded into mortgages that cost more than the houses that were their security, but no lenders were prosecuted, not to speak of anyway.
We have seen fraud upon fraud, no indictments.

And meanwhile, our government is spying on all our metadata, knows who we call, when, who we e-mail, when and all our financial relationships, all our family and friends and just how often we are in contact with them.

But it's all cool because only a few people have been arrested or beaten by the police. Only a few have lost their jobs. Only a small percentage of homeowners lost their homes. Only a small proportion of Americans declared bankruptcy. So it's all cool with the government snooping on our private business.

"We think we are free."

http://www.press.uchicago.edu/Misc/Chicago/511928.html

"What happened here was the gradual habituation of the people, little by little, to being governed by surprise; to receiving decisions deliberated in secret; to believing that the situation was so complicated that the government had to act on information which the people could not understand, or so dangerous that, even if the people could not understand it, it could not be released because of national security. And their sense of identification with Hitler, their trust in him, made it easier to widen this gap and reassured those who would otherwise have worried about it.

"This separation of government from people, this widening of the gap, took place so gradually and so insensibly, each step disguised (perhaps not even intentionally) as a temporary emergency measure or associated with true patriotic allegiance or with real social purposes. And all the crises and reforms (real reforms, too) so occupied the people that they did not see the slow motion underneath, of the whole process of government growing remoter and remoter.

. . . .
. . . "The dictatorship, and the whole process of its coming into being, was above all diverting. It provided an excuse not to think for people who did not want to think anyway. I do not speak of your ‘little men,’ your baker and so on; I speak of my colleagues and myself, learned men, mind you. Most of us did not want to think about fundamental things and never had. There was no need to. Nazism gave us some dreadful, fundamental things to think about—we were decent people—and kept us so busy with continuous changes and ‘crises’ and so fascinated, yes, fascinated, by the machinations of the ‘national enemies,’ without and within, that we had no time to think about these dreadful things that were growing, little by little, all around us. Unconsciously, I suppose, we were grateful. Who wants to think?

"To live in this process is absolutely not to be able to notice it—please try to believe me—unless one has a much greater degree of political awareness, acuity, than most of us had ever had occasion to develop. Each step was so small, so inconsequential, so well explained or, on occasion, ‘regretted,’ that, unless one were detached from the whole process from the beginning, unless one understood what the whole thing was in principle, what all these ‘little measures’ that no ‘patriotic German’ could resent must some day lead to, one no more saw it developing from day to day than a farmer in his field sees the corn growing. One day it is over his head.

. . . .

Snowden DU Cognitive Dissonance Syndrome [View all] NoodleyAppendage Jun 2013 OP
I'd still hate him if he were skewering Bush. mhatrw Jun 2013 #1
Did you hate Risen then? sabrina 1 Jun 2013 #36
Or, perhaps Edward Snowden is neither entirely heroic nor entirely treasonous. JaneyVee Jun 2013 #2
No! Pick a side! We're at war! Deep13 Jun 2013 #31
I don't have a thing against classified documents in every case treestar Jun 2013 #3
SOFA NoOneMan Jun 2013 #4
Your last point is interesting, though I suspect Snowden would still have revealed... NoodleyAppendage Jun 2013 #5
How did you feel about the leaks during the Bush administration? Did you agree that the NYT sabrina 1 Jun 2013 #37
I think there is some cognitive dissonance in place. nadinbrzezinski Jun 2013 #6
No, I the majority bashing Snowden are just as sincere as those advocating his situation still_one Jun 2013 #7
Do you honestly believe that China wasn't already aware of the US hacking? NoodleyAppendage Jun 2013 #11
That is not the point. He went to a foreign nation to reveal our secrets. hrmjustin Jun 2013 #17
"He went to a foreign nation to reveal our secrets." And your dog told you that. rhett o rick Jun 2013 #34
I think it is clear what he did. hrmjustin Jun 2013 #55
I find it interesting that you are so definite on knowing what he did and why. rhett o rick Jun 2013 #59
It is not the point, and I do not believe they were aware of Hong Kong being hacked. My main point still_one Jun 2013 #22
Not the specifics creeksneakers2 Jun 2013 #29
So you were against the leaks during the Bush years then, the ones that caused the accusation sabrina 1 Jun 2013 #38
Anyone who thinks Snowden is a hero or a villain needs to read fewer comics cthulu2016 Jun 2013 #8
Yep, totally agree NoOneMan Jun 2013 #10
I agree that who cares if he is a hero or a traitor, but his credibility does matter JaneyVee Jun 2013 #14
But the documents are not nadinbrzezinski Jun 2013 #25
You are 100 percent correct. NSA is the story morningfog Jun 2013 #15
They took a few futile shots at the documents, then changed tactics to shooting the messenger. GoneFishin Jun 2013 #19
That's me all the way ecstatic Jun 2013 #30
Post removed Post removed Jun 2013 #9
And you actually complained about being called names? treestar Jun 2013 #13
Those other names were made up bs RobertEarl Jun 2013 #18
I don't trust him. That does not mean I agree with what the government is doing. hrmjustin Jun 2013 #12
What about our leaders who swore to uphold the constitution? dkf Jun 2013 #26
I agree that they owe us something. hrmjustin Jun 2013 #27
He made a choice to put the collective above himself. Most people don't have the guts. dkf Jun 2013 #28
I respect your opinion but I disagree with it. hrmjustin Jun 2013 #33
Sadly I now trust him more than our Elected leaders. dkf Jun 2013 #50
Bingo. That's the point. Thankyou. lindysalsagal Jun 2013 #58
Forget Snowden, do you trust Ms. Plame and Mr. Wilson? nm rhett o rick Jun 2013 #35
Do I trust them? I think they were wronged by the government. hrmjustin Jun 2013 #56
Not sure that some people marions ghost Jun 2013 #16
For me the cognitive dissonance is about ... frazzled Jun 2013 #20
Good post. nt Bobbie Jo Jun 2013 #23
Thank you for mentioning TIA tavalon Jun 2013 #40
Excellent post. Summer Hathaway Jun 2013 #41
Thank you. SunSeeker Jun 2013 #44
The police crackdown on the Occupiers was pretty horrible. JDPriestly Jun 2013 #46
I agree that the romanticism is a DU thing flamingdem Jun 2013 #47
I really like your post, although I disagree with substantial portions of it. Since you mention HardTimes99 Jun 2013 #49
So you were carrying pictures of Chairman Mao? Fumesucker Jun 2013 #51
Well written BS marions ghost Jun 2013 #54
Good post. sagat Jun 2013 #57
Cognitive Dissonance has my vote... MrMickeysMom Jun 2013 #21
Thanks for this! n/t NoodleyAppendage Jun 2013 #24
I think there are several issues davidpdx Jun 2013 #32
I'm able to hold two views simultaneously, tavalon Jun 2013 #39
Well put! - nt HardTimes99 Jun 2013 #42
How could someone who is deliberately interfering with US diplomacy with Russia and China pnwmom Jun 2013 #43
How can anyone who contributes to corrupting democracy be viewed as a hero? JDPriestly Jun 2013 #48
Because he didn't "deliberately" interfere with it... MrMickeysMom Jun 2013 #52
+1 treestar Jun 2013 #53
We have people's hair on fire about a public training manual on security. The shark is jumped Recursion Jun 2013 #45
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