General Discussion
Showing Original Post only (View all)If you don't think we're already living in a police state, consider this. [View all]
In the USA, over the past 35-40 years, we've seen the steady (albeit gradual) criminalization of things that were once considered tolerable, normative or even admirable: I'm thinking of behavior or states of being that were once tolerated by authorities are now increasingly being criminalized to eliminate, by a thousand cuts, those deemed mostly likely to resist or become embarrassing or inconvenient for an emergent totalitarian regime. Here I'm thinking of homeless people and those in extreme poverty, whistle-blowers and investigative journalists (see Assange, Greenwald, Aaron Swartz), people of color & protesters (see Ferguson, Occupy Wall St.).
Conversely, alongside this criminalization of resistance, the PTB are busily "legalizing" -- and thereby normalizing -- the 24/7 surveillance of all citizens (once considered unconstitutional) , overt bribery & corruption of public officials (see Citizens United), rampant police violence & brutality towards unarmed innocents, secret international courts and tribunals (see the TPP), refusal to prosecute known torturers and war criminals (see Cheney, GWBush, John Yoo, et. al.).
When I add all this up, and look at it in once place, I'm finding it difficult to escape the conclusion that we are ALREADY there, sadly. Stick a fork in us. We're done, well done proverbial frogs in a boiling cauldron of corporate-driven fascism, aka a full-blown Corporate Oligarchy.
While the Koch Bros gleefully drive the last few nails in the coffin of our constitutional democracy in America, progressives are still looking for our car keys. There is no turning this around, not anymore. We're about 10 years too late. Obama really was our last best hope for turning all this around, and we've seen how well that's gone. I'm not anti-Obama. I suspect that Obama really tried, did his best, but was stymied at every crucial turn by dark forces fully capable of assassination at-will.
OK. Now. I'd love to be completely wrong about what I've written above, so please talk me down or prove me wrong if you can.