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Old 06-27-2014, 04:26 AM
 
Location: Pennsylvania
30,282 posts, read 16,036,866 times
Reputation: 44012

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Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl View Post
Well, that's certainly debatable. Not only that, but you are informed enough about history to know about the serious forms of social repression that have plagued this country from its inception, way before "Waco"—slavery, repression of peoples, witch trials in the colonies, and so on. The view that there was once one perfect country "under God" (and that it was ours) is a myth. But each of us will see what we will.
Best doesn't mean perfection. Nothing is perfect. Nothing ever will be.


But you're right. We will see what we we will.

 
Old 06-27-2014, 04:47 AM
 
Location: UpstateNY
8,612 posts, read 10,711,309 times
Reputation: 7595
Memories are wonderful but let them not obscure the present. If you are here then you have received a wonderful gift. That gift is today.


'These are the good old days.' -Carly Simon
 
Old 06-27-2014, 08:18 AM
 
Location: State of Being
35,879 posts, read 77,161,760 times
Reputation: 22751
Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming View Post
When I was growing up I believed that I was truly fortunate to have been born in this country. Both the standard of living and the degree of freedom were extraordinary. I read of the fear people felt for the government in the Soviet Union and the countries it held in thralldom. I never feared the government here. Government agents didn't burst through the front door here killing family pets and dragging adults away into secret and indefinite detention. It didn't happen here because the government wouldn't have dared. We had a constitution; we were secure in our homes and property; we could say what we wanted with no fear of reprisal.

Then something happened. We saw an assault folllowed by a massacre in Waco. It didn't begin a trend, however, because two years later two men struck back in Oklahoma City. The government was afraid of the people. That's the way it should be; that's the mark of a free society. When the people fear the government, on the other hand, it's the mark of a tyrrany.

Today the government can go to Amazon and demand a list of the books you've bought. They can forbid Amazon from telling you that there was an inquiry. The government can arrest you and detain you indefinitely. They do it legally; the Fourth Amendment is gone. Government publications have described what they consider suspicious activities. These include such things as opposition to new gun laws, support for Ron Paul's write-in campaign, and definitely participation in the Tea Party. There is a plethora of documentation for this.

You may say that people who have these views need to be taught a lesson, that they have no rights. I saw a handbill in Detroit delaring that racists should have no right to free speech. This is the same sort of propaganda that government agencies spread with their allies in the various entertainment media. Members of both political parties in Congressss overwhelmingly supported legislation to gut the constitution. Torture is legal today. They try to sugarcoat it, but it's a fact.

This isn't the country where I spent my youth and even at a young age knew that the government better treat me as the boss. Now, in this travesty of a once great nation, I fear the government.
Thought Police.

I used to think - why would I fear the government? I have never done anything illegal.

I no longer feel this way. I, too, fear the government, as the government no longer is there to serve us.
 
Old 06-27-2014, 08:46 AM
 
Location: Near a river
16,042 posts, read 21,917,236 times
Reputation: 15773
Quote:
Originally Posted by CCc girl View Post

applauding.........
Not a very diverse group of folks.
 
Old 06-27-2014, 09:22 AM
 
Location: SoCal
6,418 posts, read 11,556,207 times
Reputation: 7093
Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming View Post
.. Both the standard of living and the degree of freedom were extraordinary.
If you were not a person of color or a female, and were fortunate enough to make a reasonable living.

Quote:
I read of the fear people felt for the government in the Soviet Union and the countries it held in thralldom.
You don't appear to have subsequently learned that most of what they told us about that was BS propaganda, and schoolkids in the Soviet Union were being told exactly the same about America - that the people were in dread of their government.

I agree with you that in many ways this country is headed downhill. But in reality, for most of its citizens it was never as great as it was made out to be in the first place.
 
Old 06-27-2014, 09:28 AM
 
31,672 posts, read 40,927,604 times
Reputation: 14418
Quote:
Originally Posted by oddstray View Post
If you were not a person of color or a female, and were fortunate enough to make a reasonable living.



You don't appear to have subsequently learned that most of what they told us about that was BS propaganda, and schoolkids in the Soviet Union were being told exactly the same about America - that the people were in dread of their government.

I agree with you that in many ways this country is headed downhill. But in reality, for most of its citizens it was never as great as it was made out to be in the first place.
Bada Bing!
 
Old 06-27-2014, 09:29 AM
 
31,672 posts, read 40,927,604 times
Reputation: 14418
Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl View Post
Not a very diverse group of folks.
Bada Bing!
 
Old 06-27-2014, 01:05 PM
 
Location: Cody, WY
10,420 posts, read 14,536,804 times
Reputation: 22016
Quote:
Originally Posted by oddstray View Post

You don't appear to have subsequently learned that most of what they told us about that was BS propaganda, and schoolkids in the Soviet Union were being told exactly the same about America - that the people were in dread of their government.
As I became older I learned that the stories of Bolshevik horrors had been minimized by domestic Marxists. The truth was far more horrible. Many people here remember the Hungarian Uprising. I recall vividly the broadcasts coming from Hungary. One of the Chicago radio stations was getting the short wave transmissions and rebroadcasting them.

A few months later a girl about twenty spoke at my high school. She had fought the Russians; the students in the auditorium were both transfixed and horror-struck by her stories. At the end she told us that the following Saturday there would be a march in downtown Chicago protesting the tyrannical policies of the Soviet Union. People would be there from the Captive Nations. All were welcome. I attended with a friend who with his parents were refugees from Lithuania. I was proud to march with them but saddened by the fact that there were so few native-born Americans. Most people were too lazy and foolish to care.

Here's an inspiring movie (it's not fiction) about the revolution and the people in it. I hope it shocks you enough to make you think.


https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Fck...wKVqw&index=20
 
Old 06-27-2014, 02:19 PM
 
Location: UpstateNY
8,612 posts, read 10,711,309 times
Reputation: 7595
Quote:
Originally Posted by newenglandgirl View Post
Not a very diverse group of folks.
Quote:
Originally Posted by TuborgP View Post
Bada Bing!
Atually, we are. That's the beauty of CD, no two think alike.
 
Old 06-27-2014, 05:03 PM
 
Location: SoCal
6,418 posts, read 11,556,207 times
Reputation: 7093
Quote:
Originally Posted by Happy in Wyoming View Post
...
Here's an inspiring movie (it's not fiction) about the revolution and the people in it. I hope it shocks you enough to make you think.

I think plenty. And I completely agree - horrible things were being done to people in the Soviet Union.

At the same time, horrible things were being done to people of color and to women and to anyone who "didn't fit in" right here in the good old USA.

No, I'm not going to dig up movies to counter your movie (thanks for it, though. I had not yet seen it). It just doesn't make sense to discuss trends based on single samples.
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