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ThreeFireflies
01-25-2008, 10:22 PM
When you tell the average middle class citizen that their government can now do anything it wants to them - anything at all - they don't think about China, Russia, or Germany; they think about their social circle, or about the nasty look one of their neighbors gave them last Tuesday. Then they think of the IRS: you mean TAXES will rise? They'd have less cash. Now suppose our soldiers come home from Iraq or Iran to that. They're going to think Americans deserve torture and murder.....or whatever else we get. We didn't care what went on in other countries, so we're learning the hard way: perfect set up. The perpetrators would be regarded with hushed respect while they seized everyone's assets and locked up everyone who got in their way.

The question is, are Americans really that stupid or are they the silent, poisoned prisoners of a decadent culture: prisoners who'd be living on welfare had they refused to play along? They need to SEE themselves as intelligent prisoners. They need to remember. We don't have much time.

liberty-rp08
01-25-2008, 10:58 PM
"Everyone likes to say 'Hitler did this' and 'Hitler did that'. But the truth is Hitler did very little. He was a world class asshole, but the evil actually done, from the death camps to WW2 was all done by citizens who were afraid to question if what they were told by their government was the truth or not, and who because they did not want to admit to themselves that they were afraid to question the government, refused to see the truth behind the Reichstag Fire, refused to see the invasion by Poland was a staged fake, and followed Hitler into national disaster.

It's easy to look back and realize what a jerk Hitler was. But at the time, Hitler looked pretty good to the world, with the help of the media. He was TIME Magazine's Man Of The Year in 1938. Stalin was TIME Man Of The Year for 1939 and 1942. The lesson is that it isn't easy to spot a genocidal tyrant when you live with one, especially one whom the press supports and promotes. Tyrants become obvious only when looking back, after what they have done becomes known.

It is the very nature of power that it attracts the very sort of people who should not have it. The United States, as the world's last superpower, is a prize that attracts men and women willing to do anything to win that power, and hence are willing to do anything with it once they have it. It is racist to assume that tyrants appear only in other nations and that somehow America is immune simply because we're Americans. America has escaped the clutches of a dictatorship only through the efforts of those citizens who, unlike the Germans and Russians of the 1930s, have the moral courage to stand up and point out where the government is lying to the people."

-- Michael Rivero

DirtMcGirt
01-25-2008, 11:05 PM
welcome aboard fireflies... great post...

crashm1
01-25-2008, 11:32 PM
"Everyone likes to say 'Hitler did this' and 'Hitler did that'. But the truth is Hitler did very little. He was a world class asshole, but the evil actually done, from the death camps to WW2 was all done by citizens who were afraid to question if what they were told by their government was the truth or not, and who because they did not want to admit to themselves that they were afraid to question the government, refused to see the truth behind the Reichstag Fire, refused to see the invasion by Poland was a staged fake, and followed Hitler into national disaster.

It's easy to look back and realize what a jerk Hitler was. But at the time, Hitler looked pretty good to the world, with the help of the media. He was TIME Magazine's Man Of The Year in 1938. Stalin was TIME Man Of The Year for 1939 and 1942. The lesson is that it isn't easy to spot a genocidal tyrant when you live with one, especially one whom the press supports and promotes. Tyrants become obvious only when looking back, after what they have done becomes known.

It is the very nature of power that it attracts the very sort of people who should not have it. The United States, as the world's last superpower, is a prize that attracts men and women willing to do anything to win that power, and hence are willing to do anything with it once they have it. It is racist to assume that tyrants appear only in other nations and that somehow America is immune simply because we're Americans. America has escaped the clutches of a dictatorship only through the efforts of those citizens who, unlike the Germans and Russians of the 1930s, have the moral courage to stand up and point out where the government is lying to the people."

-- Michael Rivero

Excellent post! Patriotism is sometimes disagreeing with your nation's
leaders.