Posted on 04/28/2020 4:11:32 AM PDT by Kaslin
All my life, I have dismissed paranoids on the right ("America is headed to communism") and the left ("It can happen here" -- referring to fascism). It's not that I've ever believed liberty was guaranteed. Being familiar with history and a pessimist regarding the human condition, I never believed that.
But the ease with which police state tactics have been employed and the equal ease with which most Americans have accepted them have been breathtaking.
People will argue that a temporary police state has been justified because of the allegedly unique threat to life posed by the new coronavirus. I do not believe the data will bear that out. Regardless, let us at least agree that we are closer to a police state than ever in American history.
"Police state" does not mean totalitarian state. America is not a totalitarian state; we still have many freedoms. In a totalitarian state, this article could not be legally published, and if it were illegally published, I would be imprisoned and/or executed. But we are presently living with all four of the key hallmarks of a police state:
No. 1: Draconian laws depriving citizens of elementary civil rights.
The federal, state, county and city governments are now restricting almost every freedom except those of travel and speech. Americans have been banned from going to work (and thereby earning a living), meeting in groups (both indoors and outdoors), meeting in their cars in church parking lots to pray and entering state-owned properties such as beaches and parks -- among many other prohibitions.
No. 2: A mass media supportive of the state's messaging and deprivation of rights.
The New York Times, CNN and every other mainstream mass medium -- except Fox News, The Wall Street Journal (editorial and opinion pages only) and talk radio -- have served the cause of state control over individual Americans' lives just as Pravda served the Soviet government. In fact, there is almost no more dissent in The New York Times than there was in Pravda. And the Big Tech platforms are removing posts about the virus and potential treatments they deem "misinformation."
No. 3: Use of police.
Police departments throughout America have agreed to enforce these laws and edicts with what can only be described as frightening alacrity. After hearing me describe police giving summonses to, or even arresting, people for playing baseball with their children on a beach, jogging alone without a mask, or worshipping on Easter while sitting isolated in their cars in a church parking lot, a police officer called my show. He explained that the police have no choice. They must respond to every dispatch they receive.
"And why are they dispatched to a person jogging on a beach or sitting alone in a park?" I asked.
Because the department was informed about these lawbreakers.
"And who told the police about these lawbreakers?" I asked.
His answer brings us to the fourth characteristic of a police state:
No. 4: Snitches.
How do the police dispatchers learn of lawbreakers such as families playing softball in a public park, lone joggers without face masks, etc.? From their fellow citizens snitching on them. The mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, set up a "snitch line," whereby New Yorkers were told to send authorities photos of fellow New Yorkers violating any of the quarantine laws. Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti similarly encouraged snitching, unabashedly using the term.
It is said that about 1 in every 100 East German citizens were informers for the Stasi, the East German secret police, as superbly portrayed in the film "The Lives of Others." It would be interesting, and, I think, important, to know what percentage of New Yorkers informed on their fellow citizens. Now, again, you may think such a comparison is not morally valid, that de Blasio's call to New Yorkers to serve a Stasi-like role was morally justified given the coronavirus pandemic. But you cannot deny it is Stasi-like or that, other than identifying spies during World War II, this is unprecedented in American history at anywhere near this level.
This past Friday night, I gathered with six others for a Shabbat dinner with friends in Santa Monica, California. On my Friday radio show, I announced I would be doing that, and if I was arrested, it would be worth it. In my most pessimistic dreams, I never imagined that in America, having dinner at a friend's house would be an act of civil disobedience, perhaps even a criminal act. But that is precisely what happens in a police state.
The reason I believe this is a dress rehearsal is that too many Americans appear untroubled by it; the dominant force in America, the left, supports it, and one of the two major political parties has been taken over by the left. Democrats and their supporters have, in effect, announced they will use state power to enforce any law they can to combat the even greater "existential" crisis of global warming.
On the CNN website this weekend, in one of the most frightening and fanatical articles in an era of fanaticism, Bill Weir, CNN chief climate correspondent, wrote an open letter to his newborn son. In it, he wrote of his idealized future for America: "completely new forms of power, food, construction, transportation, economics and politics."
You cannot get there without a police state.
If you love liberty, you must see that it is jeopardized more than at any time since America's founding. And that means, among other things, that at this time, a vote for any Democrat is a vote to end liberty.
I have been awakened to the fact that many so called Conservatives are really self centered transnational types lacking any creativity or imagination. There is a pervasive “what’s in it for me” attitude that goes beyond being a patriot. If it is ever an inconvenience the democracy, freedom and the republic be damned .
It’s frightening to see how quickly people took this up, turned into snitches and all of a sudden the new virtue-signaling became gushing about how you were “protecting the vulnerable” by giving up your rights and freedoms and letting your every move be dictated by an out of control government.
Even here on FR, there is a whole contingent that rushes forward to scream that people who want the economy reopened and our freedoms back really want to kill granny and have blood on their hands for going to the beach.
And this is exactly what will happen when the Dems get back in the WH (and probably will also have a majority in both houses) and announce their permanent lockdown because “climate change.” People should be prepared to fight back now; this virus tyranny caught us by surprise, but we know what they’re planning after November.
WHY do you post FUD troll garbage??
So let me get this straight ...
A business is shut down under government orders and the owner loses his biggest asset that he's spent years building -- and you think it's OK because other businesses will open in its place?
Your attitude is a perfect illustration of the problem here. You don't care about the rights of the restaurant owner and the barber. You only care about getting a meal and a haircut.
I visited Chile during Pinochet’s reign. The streets were clean, no graffitti and NO crime. So there is that.
I’m not as optimistic as I was, but if the truth starts coming out about the Deep State, we may be in for interesting times.
A lot of people are angry with the way life has been disrupted over this virus. The “experts” in the government don’t seem to have handled it well. What happens to the country’s mood when we find out how corrupt, anti-American, and generally inhumane our masters have been for the past few decades. How they’ve lied to us? How they’ve sold us out to countries like China? Abusing the constitution? Perhaps even engaging in sex trafficking? This goes beyond the virus. This is Hillary, Obama, and the Bushes. We The People have been screwed in many, many ways.
The mood of the people may now be ripe to totally re-visit the Progressive State and determine: “Let’s do that minimal government thing again.”
Jeff Cooper once wrote that is impossible to tyrannize a society that owns rifles. I am not a gun nut. I have two pistols and like to target practice but I don’t even conceal carry... yet. I am a corporate counsel with two advanced degrees and two grandchildren that I treasure far more. I’m not the reactionary type. But after what I have witnessed in the Left’s recent power grab and it’s unwillingness to give back control of people’s lives, I am fairly sure that an AR 15 in .300 BLK and solid tactical training is in my near future.
Police SWAT raids to take our firearms are the next step.
Remember when talk like this was labeled "Conspiracy Theory"?
But that's essentially how tyranny gets a toe-hold on a free people. It's like the argument about mandatory seat-belt or helmet wearing, namely, you may have a right to go without, but if you get injured we all pay the price in terms of increased costs, ergo, you must give up your personal freedom for the good of the collective. But there's almost nothing to which such a formula might not apply. It's how libertarians become totalitarians, without even knowing that it's happening.
Yes they do. And between the two of them, give me the pathogens!
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Remember this? There have been signs.
The virus will come and go. But the government will NEVER forget how easy it was to take control of your life. As Milton Friedman once said, “Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government measure.”
I always wondered how Hitler got the population so willing to comply, and the police to become so cruel. I think I understand it a bit more after observing our nation the past couple of months.
Those of us who have been and are skeptical of the measures taken, and concerned about future liberty are a minority. Even on this site.
I have to say I’ve been disheartened by so many posters on here concerning the virus.
“Whatever else happens, we should always choose Liberty.”
Yes.
Have you considered defying the government’s orders?
Alex Jones warned us 20 years ago about the growing police state in America. At the time most people thought he was crazy for putting out a video that showed exactly that. Scary then, scarier now.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hp76DVFAysA
“If some of the people here (FR) can fall prey to fear, hysteria, and Fake News, anybody can. This has been a huge win for the Left.”
So true.
“we are all becoming chicks, inculcated by all their underlying phobias and hangups...”
Maybe in your world, but in our extended family, the “chicks” are NOT the ones with “underlying phobias and hangups”.
And lest we forget, henceforth we must be even more vigilant than every before. Democrats have taken notes. They will use what they have learned from this to establish a fascist state in America as soon as they get the chance. They must not get the chance!
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