<story><title>“Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”</title><url>http://www.salon.com/2013/07/07/%E2%80%9Cwhy_did_you_shoot_me_i_was_reading_a_book_the_new_warrior_cop_is_out_of_control/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>smky80</author><text>They do not &amp;quot;like&amp;quot; it.  It&amp;#x27;s just that, to be very blunt, most people are basically peasants at heart.  They&amp;#x27;re going to go along with whatever the king says.  Twenty years ago, on that side of the line on a map, the people believed in capitalism, while on the other side the people believed in communism.  On this side of the line people believed in this god, on that side, they believe in that god.&lt;p&gt;It has nothing to do with some kind economists&amp;#x27; &amp;quot;rational utilization maximization&amp;quot; function and everything to do with basically a &amp;quot;k-nearest neighbours&amp;quot; algorithm on their social graph for assigning beliefs.&lt;p&gt;And that is precisely why control of the media is so important.</text></item><item><author>mikeash</author><text>Sadly, yes, it &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; the America that America wants, as far as I can tell.&lt;p&gt;I think this is where efforts to fight these problems fall down. They&amp;#x27;re almost all based on the assumption that the populace doesn&amp;#x27;t want this stuff to happen, but that the government pushes it through by abusing power, subverting democracy, etc.&lt;p&gt;But from what I see, this is not the case. Most Americans want this. Whether it&amp;#x27;s gun-wielding maniacs, drug dealers, or international terrorist masterminds, they feel &lt;i&gt;unsafe&lt;/i&gt;, and want the government to help. They &lt;i&gt;like&lt;/i&gt; heavily-armed SWAT teams available at a moment&amp;#x27;s notice. They &lt;i&gt;like&lt;/i&gt; the government spying on every communication they can get their hands on. They &lt;i&gt;like&lt;/i&gt; x-ray machines and body scanners in airports.&lt;p&gt;There is a sizable minority where sanity remains, but it is a &lt;i&gt;minority&lt;/i&gt;. I think that efforts to fight these problems need to recognize this, and realize that you have to convince the &lt;i&gt;people&lt;/i&gt; as your primary action. Fighting the government won&amp;#x27;t help, because the people will insist that these things be done, as long as the majority feels this way.&lt;p&gt;No, I don&amp;#x27;t know how....</text></item><item><author>Ovid</author><text>Is this really the America that America wants?&lt;p&gt;The article mentions one case where a judge refused to issue a search warrant for a narcotics investigation and instead the police brought representatives from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and raided the place with a swat team to conduct an alcohol inspection. What did they find?&lt;p&gt;Two sample bottles of beer that weren&amp;#x27;t labeled as samples and a bottle of vodka in the office. The fourth circuit court of appeals upheld the search. According to the article: &lt;i&gt;So for now, in the Fourth Circuit, sending a SWAT team to make sure a bar’s beer is labeled correctly is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>ryanSrich</author><text>Well, &amp;quot;like&amp;quot; is a subjective term but for the most part people support it.&lt;p&gt;I hear all the time...&amp;quot;It&amp;#x27;s for the better. It allows the government to keep track of the bad guys and if I have to be inconvenienced a few times out of the year that I travel than so be it.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;Or...&amp;quot;All I use email for is work and talking with family. If they want to read that stuff they can, I have nothing to hide. If it helps keep me safe then I&amp;#x27;m comfortable.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;And the there&amp;#x27;s...&amp;quot;God forbid we have another 9&amp;#x2F;11 because too many people are worried about what the government does. There are somethings the government has to do in secrete, there are things they have to lie to us about in order to keep us safe.&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;m 23 years old and I can&amp;#x27;t tell you where this mentality came from. I know when I was growing up my father showed me how to grow my own food, hunt, use a gun in a respectful mannor and always doubt the government. He told me that violence never solved any of his problems and it&amp;#x27;s doubtful it&amp;#x27;d solve any of mine. He said in order for anyone to be safe they must have their freedom. The freedom to do whatever it is they seek to do. The government is only there to remove that freedom. They want to stifle your ambitions and control how you live.&lt;p&gt;I know I&amp;#x27;m not alone but I&amp;#x27;m afraid we are outnumbered.</text></comment>
<story><title>“Why did you shoot me? I was reading a book”</title><url>http://www.salon.com/2013/07/07/%E2%80%9Cwhy_did_you_shoot_me_i_was_reading_a_book_the_new_warrior_cop_is_out_of_control/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>smky80</author><text>They do not &amp;quot;like&amp;quot; it.  It&amp;#x27;s just that, to be very blunt, most people are basically peasants at heart.  They&amp;#x27;re going to go along with whatever the king says.  Twenty years ago, on that side of the line on a map, the people believed in capitalism, while on the other side the people believed in communism.  On this side of the line people believed in this god, on that side, they believe in that god.&lt;p&gt;It has nothing to do with some kind economists&amp;#x27; &amp;quot;rational utilization maximization&amp;quot; function and everything to do with basically a &amp;quot;k-nearest neighbours&amp;quot; algorithm on their social graph for assigning beliefs.&lt;p&gt;And that is precisely why control of the media is so important.</text></item><item><author>mikeash</author><text>Sadly, yes, it &lt;i&gt;is&lt;/i&gt; the America that America wants, as far as I can tell.&lt;p&gt;I think this is where efforts to fight these problems fall down. They&amp;#x27;re almost all based on the assumption that the populace doesn&amp;#x27;t want this stuff to happen, but that the government pushes it through by abusing power, subverting democracy, etc.&lt;p&gt;But from what I see, this is not the case. Most Americans want this. Whether it&amp;#x27;s gun-wielding maniacs, drug dealers, or international terrorist masterminds, they feel &lt;i&gt;unsafe&lt;/i&gt;, and want the government to help. They &lt;i&gt;like&lt;/i&gt; heavily-armed SWAT teams available at a moment&amp;#x27;s notice. They &lt;i&gt;like&lt;/i&gt; the government spying on every communication they can get their hands on. They &lt;i&gt;like&lt;/i&gt; x-ray machines and body scanners in airports.&lt;p&gt;There is a sizable minority where sanity remains, but it is a &lt;i&gt;minority&lt;/i&gt;. I think that efforts to fight these problems need to recognize this, and realize that you have to convince the &lt;i&gt;people&lt;/i&gt; as your primary action. Fighting the government won&amp;#x27;t help, because the people will insist that these things be done, as long as the majority feels this way.&lt;p&gt;No, I don&amp;#x27;t know how....</text></item><item><author>Ovid</author><text>Is this really the America that America wants?&lt;p&gt;The article mentions one case where a judge refused to issue a search warrant for a narcotics investigation and instead the police brought representatives from the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control and raided the place with a swat team to conduct an alcohol inspection. What did they find?&lt;p&gt;Two sample bottles of beer that weren&amp;#x27;t labeled as samples and a bottle of vodka in the office. The fourth circuit court of appeals upheld the search. According to the article: &lt;i&gt;So for now, in the Fourth Circuit, sending a SWAT team to make sure a bar’s beer is labeled correctly is not a violation of the Fourth Amendment.&lt;/i&gt;</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>tsotha</author><text>&lt;i&gt;They do not &amp;quot;like&amp;quot; it. It&amp;#x27;s just that, to be very blunt, most people are basically peasants at heart. &lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;I don&amp;#x27;t see any reason to believe this is true.  The problem is most people don&amp;#x27;t have any contact with the police, and they&amp;#x27;re using a mental model that&amp;#x27;s about fifteen years out of date.  They don&amp;#x27;t know what&amp;#x27;s happening out there.  It&amp;#x27;s hard to imagine, but most normal people still get their news from television.</text></comment>