Yeah, the way the USA handled 9/11 is very different from the europeans country. But then again, a large part of americans don't bother to vote so ..
My train of thoughts is that the basic american doesn't really care about who govern and what they do with it

imre

France9263 Posts

February 05 2013 12:32 GMT

#22

wut, some people should read a bit about what totalitarism really was and how it was set up before putting stupid polls online.
Tho the results show that the people answering the poll don't know a lot either ^^

rabidch

United States20289 Posts

February 05 2013 12:33 GMT

#23

i dont quite understand why theres a paragraph about auto insurance

TotalNightmare

Germany139 Posts

February 05 2013 12:42 GMT

#24

Well at the moment the USA seem like the only country where 1984 may actually ever happen, possibly even be on the way.
While I deem it possible I could not say under any circumstances how high/low the chances of that actually ever happening are, never having been to the states.

PS:
I would find it hilarious if the US became a dictatorship though, simply due to the fact that some people are so sure that the second amendment will protect them from just that...

DannyJ

United States5110 Posts

February 05 2013 12:46 GMT

#25

You know you live in a good time in history when one of the key examples of the "big brother" government coming to get you is when a couple dumb local governments have funny garden laws.

catabowl

United States815 Posts

February 05 2013 12:49 GMT

#26

OP quotes a lot of Liberal sites and agendas to back up his arguments (some not even viable) and then claims the media (which is slight liberal leaning in America) is hiding the truth. Does that not suggest that maybe the claims being made are inaccurate or wrong? That logic seems backwards to me. If the media backs the Liberal position and the liberal position states it's okay, then why would the Media lie about it?

Deleted User 45971

533 Posts

February 05 2013 13:58 GMT

#27

I dunno about any of this except the Department of Homeland Security gets 60 billion dollars in annual funding and 240,000 employees, contrast this to the FBI which "only" gets 8.1 billion dollars and 36,000 employees. Where the hell is all that money going? In the media I see the FBI all over the place but the DHS?

PassiveAce

United States18076 Posts

February 05 2013 14:18 GMT

#28

People who make threads like these have never lived in countries that can actually be described as totalitarian, and if they had, they wouldnt be making threads like this.

Cheerio

Ukraine3178 Posts

February 05 2013 14:23 GMT

#29

The majority didn't believe the evidence of their own eyes, on the 9/11 incident

and you quote it as a reference... Dude, you should never post on politics or any other complicated topic you don't know shit about. I'm actually living in the totalitarian state in the making right now and your blubbering about how bad US is at that offends me.

Kreb

4834 Posts

February 05 2013 14:23 GMT

#30

The whole world is heading in that direction. Maybe it will stop at some point, but we've most definitely not seen the end of it yet. I mean, when stores started introducing cameras people were complaining, now its the most natural thing in the world. Maybe in 100 years we'll get one of those chips you see in future movies implanted as we're born and we'll be totally ok with it, who knows.

freewareplayer

Germany403 Posts

February 05 2013 14:27 GMT

#31

Scary stuff, and im not even usually bothered by any similar stuff

jakethesnake

Canada4948 Posts

February 05 2013 14:40 GMT

#32

The US is a country that is theoretically built on the ideas of freedom, liberty, and equality. However, in practice it seems that fear and distrust runs the country instead. Even people's love of freedom has become ruled by fear; fear that the government will take it away, fear that others are infringing on freedoms. As a result, instead of viewing the gov't as a service to the people and a public good, it is viewed as a necessary evil that must constantly be kept in check lest it destroy everything. What you end up with is a bit of a self-fulfilling prophesy. When you are so focused on keeping the government in check as opposed to keeping the government focused on its mandate of serving its populace. When the people constantly focus on fighting the government and trying to limit its power, the government does the same thing in trying to protect its power.

Of course the US government is nowhere near a 'totalitarian state.' It's just a culture of fear.

docvoc

United States5491 Posts

February 05 2013 14:40 GMT

#33

No, there will not be a totalitarian state. No it won't happen, yes we can hypothesize what could drive us to it, but no it will never happen. The constitution, and all the rest of our original documents were made to prevent that. I really think this is completely out of left field.

IceCube

Croatia1403 Posts

February 05 2013 14:43 GMT

#34

On February 05 2013 23:18 PassiveAce wrote:
People who make threads like these have never lived in countries that can actually be described as totalitarian, and if they had, they wouldnt be making threads like this.

Difference in living in rich totalitarian country and a poor one is what you spoke off, and is obvious to naked eye, but the regime and the rules that apply are the same.

ThomasjServo

15244 Posts

February 05 2013 14:43 GMT

#35

I hesitate to dust off my tin foil hat, I am sorry but I used to work for a governor's office and this kind of, for lack of a better term, conspiracy laden stuff would come in all the time. None of OP is completely exclusive to the US, the 21st century will have an unprecedented decline in privacy, that much is certain. It doesn't follow that authoritarian rule is quick on its heels. You'll have to work harder to maintain some semblance of anonymity the more, and better data is volunteered by the public.

HeatEXTEND

Netherlands836 Posts

February 05 2013 15:05 GMT

#36

On February 05 2013 21:32 sAsImre wrote:
wut, some people should read a bit about what totalitarism really was and how it was set up before putting stupid polls online.
Tho the results show that the people answering the poll don't know a lot either ^^

Totalitarianism can actually be very quiet and peaceful.

+ Show Spoiler +

SpeaKEaSY

United States1070 Posts

February 05 2013 15:08 GMT

#37

On February 05 2013 22:58 Potatisodlaren wrote:
I dunno about any of this except the Department of Homeland Security gets 60 billion dollars in annual funding and 240,000 employees, contrast this to the FBI which "only" gets 8.1 billion dollars and 36,000 employees. Where the hell is all that money going? In the media I see the FBI all over the place but the DHS?

http://www.businessinsider.com/dhs-fletc-ammunition-purchases-750-million-200-million-40-caliber-rounds-2013-1

It's going towards billions of bullets. And yet, the government asks why the average American needs to be armed...

To answer the OP, yes, I do believe we are headed towards tyranny, because our financial situation is terrible and is not getting better any time soon. During the Great Depression, government expanded immensely, so I expect the same to happen when we go into our full blown depression.

vividred

88 Posts

February 05 2013 15:20 GMT

#38

On February 05 2013 21:32 sAsImre wrote:
wut, some people should read a bit about what totalitarism really was and how it was set up before putting stupid polls online.
Tho the results show that the people answering the poll don't know a lot either ^^

What is this "totalitarism" you speak of, statist?

imre

France9263 Posts

February 05 2013 15:34 GMT

#39

On February 06 2013 00:20 vividred wrote:

Show nested quote +

What is this "totalitarism" you speak of, statist?

something that has been defined but the likes of Arendt/Neumann/Lefort/etc... (those are the one I know a bit about, but it was a heated debate back then and you can have multiple authors) which include the fact that the state lose almost all its power in favor of another entity which isn't bind by law like the party or a movement depending on which author you like the most.
All the transparency business going on (and state issues are waaaaaay less opaque than they used to be) is just the contrary of a totalitarian policy which apply transparency to everything in everyone life (big brother) but not to the state (or whatever you want to call it since it's just the same type of power applied by a similar institution) .

However we can argue about the degree of authoritarianism and the impact of common interest on the US (or any other western countries) policy and it becomes interesting because things are going in both directions and you can plead for one way or the other.

radiatoren

Denmark1907 Posts

February 05 2013 15:36 GMT

#40

On February 05 2013 21:42 TotalNightmare wrote:
Well at the moment the USA seem like the only country where 1984 may actually ever happen, possibly even be on the way.
While I deem it possible I could not say under any circumstances how high/low the chances of that actually ever happening are, never having been to the states.

PS:
I would find it hilarious if the US became a dictatorship though, simply due to the fact that some people are so sure that the second amendment will protect them from just that...

France is extremely protectionistic, the economy is shaky, far right wing is almost presidential strong, political discourse is particularly nasty and turnout is plummeting very fast! None of those factors are encouraging for stability of democracy and it certainly is pointing towards increased surveillance!

USA has a choice between a right wing president and a conservative/extreme right president, making the votes unimportant to a certain degree. electronic voting is pretty common (that is a negative for trust in democracy, mind you), strong biased economic interests have almost deciding power, there is a structurally shaky economy and a general dissatisfaction with all politicians. USA is looking more like a government run by conglamorations of interest, which ironically is close to the 1984 idea of communism (Orwells vision, not even close to what Marx envisioned)... However surveillance in USA is always gonna be tricky to some extend because of political paranoia about several of the direct methods. To compensate there is an even bigger increase in indirect surveillance and therefore indirect right erosion. That people are becoming more aware because of the overreach to stop holes for terrorists is a reason for why USA is not gonna turn into a 1984!

Edit: As for canabis being illegal for some random reason. You are paranoid! Canabis is illegal in most of the rest of the world too and especially in Europe...