5 ms·

I will never understand how people in the US are okay with this. Don't people care about justice at all over there?

vikramkr 6y ago
You see giant protests occupying cities for weeks and your first thought is that americans are totally OK with the state of things? All those folks on the street in Hong kong - they must just be out there celebrating their loss of liberties! It's a big party!
- rabite 6y ago
  Yeah but the giant protests occupying cities for weeks are not about psychedelics sentences at all. They are generally in support of the state of things, funded by hostile billionaires in hopes that small businesses will be destroyed and that any potential competition in the middle class will disappear with them. People aren't asking for lower LSD sentences, they are demanding an end to "racism" and some kind of penance because a career violent criminal with heart disease passing counterfeit currency overdosed on fentanyl while being arrested.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    I hadn't heard that, but I can't think of a justification for police to be giving someone fentanyl while arresting them.
    - rabite 6y ago
      They didn't. George Floyd was in excited delirium from fentanyl (and had recently done methamphetamine) when he died.
- devenblake 6y ago
  There may be giant protests, but Americans continue to elect leaders that refuse to serve their interests.
  - vikramkr 6y ago
    Continued gerrymandering keeps the incumbents in power. Ongoing voter suppression targeted at minorities silences their political voices and swings elections, denying democracy its due. Since 1990, the Republican party has won the popular vote for president once, but won the presidency 3 times. 2018 was a wave year where the left picked up a huge number of seats in the house. And the federal government isn't everything. State and local governments hold enormous power, and where progress can be made, progressives are elected. Theres also huge amounts of money in politics thanks to a really destructive supreme court ruling. And do you really think the people in Minneapolis protesting are going to vote for trump and support officials that refuse to serve their interests? I understand you might not be familiar with why people are protesting and the ways the political system is broken. Hell, I don't know what's going on in the UK with brexit and their protests everything for example, and I dont know what the electoral dynamics and structural problems are. And that's fine, because I'm not going around oversimplifying issues I dont understand and saying "wow these dumb Brits are so self destructive why do they keep voting for dumb stuff." Same thing. I'd recommend actually understanding what's going on before making sweeping incorrect statements about how America works. Again - Americans electing leaders that refuse to serve "their" interests. Do you think this deeply politically divided country is some sort of monolith? Do you really think the people protesting are the ones that voted for Trump?
  - MiroF 6y ago
    There are serious structural problems with American elections - it is not as simple as that.
    - lioeters 6y ago
      Indeed.. When the public has only two candidates to realistically choose from, both of whom represent parties which run on massive legalized bribery ("donations") and coordinate to systematically keep incumbents out - it's not fair to blame the American public for "electing" leaders that maintain and strengthen the status quo. They don't really have much of a choice.
- peroporque 6y ago
  Those protests in the US have nothing to do with justice. They are about power.
x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago
Not really. When you ignore all the marketing material about "freedom" and such that accompanies a discussion about the US, you see that we are an extremely authoritarian country.
- peroporque 6y ago
  Of course you have. These guys come to mind articlesofunity.org for example.
Sargos 6y ago
We're not okay with this but we have no way to change the laws that are made by our Lords.
- tutuca 6y ago
  Well to be fair. If more population were concerned an actively participating in democracy, by at the least get out and go to vote, some thing would change, for sure. USA has the lowest participation on any democracy I know. Universal obligatory vote is something that does wonders and produce actual change.
  - Sargos 6y ago
    I do vote but I also live in a gerrymandered district so my representative is pre-chosen for me. I also live in a non-battleground state where essentially my president is pre-chosen as well. My vote actually doesn't matter much at all.
  - MiroF 6y ago
    In large portions of the country, there is nothing contested and nobody to vote against. Structural problems can cause lack of participation. I don't know if I would want voting to be obligatory, but it certainly should be universal.

You see giant protests occupying cities for weeks and your first thought is that americans are totally OK with the state of things? All those folks on the street in Hong kong - they must just be out there celebrating their loss of liberties! It's a big party!

rabite 6y ago
Yeah but the giant protests occupying cities for weeks are not about psychedelics sentences at all. They are generally in support of the state of things, funded by hostile billionaires in hopes that small businesses will be destroyed and that any potential competition in the middle class will disappear with them. People aren't asking for lower LSD sentences, they are demanding an end to "racism" and some kind of penance because a career violent criminal with heart disease passing counterfeit currency overdosed on fentanyl while being arrested.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  I hadn't heard that, but I can't think of a justification for police to be giving someone fentanyl while arresting them.
  - rabite 6y ago
    They didn't. George Floyd was in excited delirium from fentanyl (and had recently done methamphetamine) when he died.
devenblake 6y ago
There may be giant protests, but Americans continue to elect leaders that refuse to serve their interests.
- vikramkr 6y ago
  Continued gerrymandering keeps the incumbents in power. Ongoing voter suppression targeted at minorities silences their political voices and swings elections, denying democracy its due. Since 1990, the Republican party has won the popular vote for president once, but won the presidency 3 times. 2018 was a wave year where the left picked up a huge number of seats in the house. And the federal government isn't everything. State and local governments hold enormous power, and where progress can be made, progressives are elected. Theres also huge amounts of money in politics thanks to a really destructive supreme court ruling. And do you really think the people in Minneapolis protesting are going to vote for trump and support officials that refuse to serve their interests? I understand you might not be familiar with why people are protesting and the ways the political system is broken. Hell, I don't know what's going on in the UK with brexit and their protests everything for example, and I dont know what the electoral dynamics and structural problems are. And that's fine, because I'm not going around oversimplifying issues I dont understand and saying "wow these dumb Brits are so self destructive why do they keep voting for dumb stuff." Same thing. I'd recommend actually understanding what's going on before making sweeping incorrect statements about how America works. Again - Americans electing leaders that refuse to serve "their" interests. Do you think this deeply politically divided country is some sort of monolith? Do you really think the people protesting are the ones that voted for Trump?
- MiroF 6y ago
  There are serious structural problems with American elections - it is not as simple as that.
  - lioeters 6y ago
    Indeed.. When the public has only two candidates to realistically choose from, both of whom represent parties which run on massive legalized bribery ("donations") and coordinate to systematically keep incumbents out - it's not fair to blame the American public for "electing" leaders that maintain and strengthen the status quo. They don't really have much of a choice.
peroporque 6y ago
Those protests in the US have nothing to do with justice. They are about power.

x86_64Ubuntu 6y ago

Not really. When you ignore all the marketing material about "freedom" and such that accompanies a discussion about the US, you see that we are an extremely authoritarian country.

peroporque 6y ago
Of course you have. These guys come to mind articlesofunity.org for example.

Sargos 6y ago

We're not okay with this but we have no way to change the laws that are made by our Lords.

tutuca 6y ago
Well to be fair. If more population were concerned an actively participating in democracy, by at the least get out and go to vote, some thing would change, for sure. USA has the lowest participation on any democracy I know. Universal obligatory vote is something that does wonders and produce actual change.
- Sargos 6y ago
  I do vote but I also live in a gerrymandered district so my representative is pre-chosen for me. I also live in a non-battleground state where essentially my president is pre-chosen as well. My vote actually doesn't matter much at all.
- MiroF 6y ago
  In large portions of the country, there is nothing contested and nobody to vote against. Structural problems can cause lack of participation. I don't know if I would want voting to be obligatory, but it certainly should be universal.