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If someone is taking fly training of commercial jet without wanting to learn how to land the plane, I absolutely want the government to find out why. Same for

by srcmap 9y ago

If someone is taking fly training of commercial jet without wanting to learn how to land the plane, I absolutely want the government to find out why. Same for someone who want to purchase large quality of fertilizer for no real needs.

Cacti 9y ago
Do you really think there are 120,000 people in that province that are all making bulk purchases of unneeded fertilizer? There is just another form of extrajudicial population control. They are using this as a way to justify arbitrarily rounding up people who have long wanted to be free of Chinese rule.
mertd 9y ago
Where is the line? Do you want to sit in an interrogation room for a few hours before you rent a U-Haul?
refurb 9y ago
I'm not going to lie to you, there is no way that could happen. When you look at successful police operations that have prevented terrorism, a lot of it comes down to luck. Someone had an informant who heard someone say something about a bomb. There just simply aren't enough police in the US to follow-up on every suspicious activity. Particularly now when even mundane activities can be regarded as suspicious.
drb91 9y ago
This is crazy. The government is not a wall between you and what scares you; that is what politicians want you to think. The wall is never high enough; it is never deep enough; there are never enough cameras; we need better people deciding what is OK to do on camera and what is not OK. This is all very fine to want, but it's an entirely different conception of government than the one described in the constitution. It's a government much closer to the one in Russia, or China, or Turkey, or North Korea. While it may be used to, in part, fight crime, the line item that justifies the surveillance state is the ability to invest in a guarantee of power. Trying to turn the US into this state is just going to lead to abuse of power, abuse of people without voices, and a much more wasteful budget: infrastructure spending by investment in paranoia, with a return of more power by fear. Literally government by terrorism.
- forapurpose 9y ago
  > The government is not a wall between you and what scares you While I'm sympathetic to your point, it can be taken too far. Government does provide security to its citizens, and it does that partly by gaining prior intelligence about suspicious activities. Some things should be investigated - if someone posted online about committing murder, in detail and with clear plans, I'd hope law enforcement would check it out.

by srcmap 9y ago

Cacti 9y ago

Do you really think there are 120,000 people in that province that are all making bulk purchases of unneeded fertilizer? There is just another form of extrajudicial population control. They are using this as a way to justify arbitrarily rounding up people who have long wanted to be free of Chinese rule.

mertd 9y ago

Where is the line? Do you want to sit in an interrogation room for a few hours before you rent a U-Haul?

refurb 9y ago

I'm not going to lie to you, there is no way that could happen. When you look at successful police operations that have prevented terrorism, a lot of it comes down to luck. Someone had an informant who heard someone say something about a bomb. There just simply aren't enough police in the US to follow-up on every suspicious activity. Particularly now when even mundane activities can be regarded as suspicious.

drb91 9y ago

This is crazy. The government is not a wall between you and what scares you; that is what politicians want you to think. The wall is never high enough; it is never deep enough; there are never enough cameras; we need better people deciding what is OK to do on camera and what is not OK. This is all very fine to want, but it's an entirely different conception of government than the one described in the constitution. It's a government much closer to the one in Russia, or China, or Turkey, or North Korea. While it may be used to, in part, fight crime, the line item that justifies the surveillance state is the ability to invest in a guarantee of power. Trying to turn the US into this state is just going to lead to abuse of power, abuse of people without voices, and a much more wasteful budget: infrastructure spending by investment in paranoia, with a return of more power by fear. Literally government by terrorism.

forapurpose 9y ago
> The government is not a wall between you and what scares you While I'm sympathetic to your point, it can be taken too far. Government does provide security to its citizens, and it does that partly by gaining prior intelligence about suspicious activities. Some things should be investigated - if someone posted online about committing murder, in detail and with clear plans, I'd hope law enforcement would check it out.