Obama had opportunities to push things in the right direction but instead enabled (by not abolishing or by actively renewing legislation) a lot of what we’re seeing.
This is fine, the government wouldn’t ever use this in a bad way
What if the government is no longer benevolent? What if a cabal of activists takes over the executive branch?
It’s actually an acronym: The USA PATRIOT Act which stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”
I was a rightwing edge lord kid at the time, the names for things under GWB (specifically The Patriot Act and Homeland Security) made me pause for the first time. It was a real “are we the baddies?” moment for me as I drew all the lines to dictatorships in history
IMO, people are a lot stupider and act with a lot less knowledge of the obvious outcomes of their actions than we give them credit for, and the possibility of non-obvious outcomes is often completely missing from their worldview.
I called this shit after 9/11 but everyone said I was being paranoid.
Same. The Patriot Act was a huge step in this direction.
Obama had opportunities to push things in the right direction but instead enabled (by not abolishing or by actively renewing legislation) a lot of what we’re seeing.
It’s actually an acronym: The USA PATRIOT Act which stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”
But I like to call it The U SAP AT RIOT Act
We “sap at riot” indeed…
I was a rightwing edge lord kid at the time, the names for things under GWB (specifically The Patriot Act and Homeland Security) made me pause for the first time. It was a real “are we the baddies?” moment for me as I drew all the lines to dictatorships in history
You weren’t wrong. You just were early.
IMO, people are a lot stupider and act with a lot less knowledge of the obvious outcomes of their actions than we give them credit for, and the possibility of non-obvious outcomes is often completely missing from their worldview.