“...The massacre in Waco of a few days ago bears all the marks of this tactics. A group is picked so small and marginal that most people won’t associate with them. The group is then marginalized and demonized, and all kinds of false accusations are said about them – violence, illegal drugs, illegal weapons, etc. Then, when the group is so marginalized that the majority of the population won’t trust them, and won’t take their word for anything, the government ambushes them and guns them down. The group is scared and subdued. The police are trained and conditioned to not question orders – they will need that conditioning for later, when the “enemy” is moms, or old people, or kids.
And the public? The public is conditioned to disengage. “I didn’t say anything because I was not a biker.”
It was that same Waco that saw an earlier version of the same tactics, with the Branch Davidians. Everyone disengaged, because no one was a Branch Davidian, and the government was able to demonize the small sect enough to cover its own crimes. If the people of Waco were awake to what was happening, and if they had a Solzhenitsyn to tell them what to do, the whole town would be there shooting at those FBI and ATF murderers. But when the government comes for the smaller groups, most people prefer to remain silent....”
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I have been bitterly disappointed that a number of FReepers (of the low-information, low-discernment type) so quickly fell for this tactic. These stupid creatures were quick to join in the vilification of the “bikers” and reveled in the murders carried out in this DOJ/ATF/local police operation.
Yes, bitterly.
My years here have [had] convinced me that I was among like minds, all of whom were willing to leap to the defense of those who were set upon by the fedgov juggernaut.
Maybe not.
I will adjust my attitude, accordingly.
I would have been disappointed if I'd expected anything different. The bright spot in this though, is that the apologists for the police state are becoming a small and smaller (though more vocal) minority. Look at the threads on this, you'll find the same 3 or 4 posters present, some with 50+ comments per thread. Makes it seem like a lot more support for the police state than really exists.
I've been on FR for a while. I've been watching the number of reflexive JBT supporters slowly decrease over the years. Just 10 years ago, the general reaction on this site to what happened there would have been remarkably different.
Seemed to me to be a vaguely Baltimore-like situation, with more than one “poxy” house involved in a tragic-clownic situation, and then of course everyone involved dindu nuffin.
Forecast: Stormy, with a high chance of heavy lawsuit precipitation and political posturing.
When I was younger, my teachers used to refer to this as “man’s inhumanity to man.”