It is a sad, sad, commentary on what paranoia can do to a country, they are some of the most watched people on the planet - and they don’t seem to mind. The unfortunate thing about that is not that they have become a big brother state, but that other authoritarian governments, Canada’s included, will point to them as shining examples of what should be done.

Guess Im just weird in not being bothered by such. To my thinking , is no reason to worry since Im not a criminal. To me griping about this is kind of like the idiots who throw a fit about getting carded for booze / smokes with all the shops now showing plain as day the “we card people” signs.

Id say the paranoia is most evident in the people griping about such measures for security… *shrug*

Hemah, the Nazis were elected in a western liberal democracy and that McCarthyism and the Patriot Act are recent North American examples. If people are afraid enough, they won’t necessarily notice horrible human rights abuses in the name of their security.

Right now, in the majority, we agree with our construction of criminal law: but what if it becomes illegal to be left wing? Right wing? What if it becomes illegal to hold certain religious or philosophical beliefs? Illegal to question the government? Illegal to be something you cannot change, like race or physical type?

Although I am not fond of guns, I understand the reason for the American 2nd Amendment. We need space and tools organize against a government gone awry. I don’t think guns are that tool: governments these days have more money and armament than any militia will have. What tools we have are our ability to communicate, to convince, to organize, and to subvert. Part of that organization is about moving people freely and without the eye of government - which is only benign when it’s benign, and quickly becomes something terrifying when it’s not.