Militarization of American Culture

To some extent, this probably helps explain some of the the appeal for the very order minded GOP nominee.

http://nationalinterest.org/blog/the-skeptics/the-creeping-miltiarization-american-culture-16207?page=2

Perhaps the most corrosive domestic effect of the global interventionist foreign policy that Washington adopted after World War II has been on national attitudes. Americans have come to accept intrusions in the name of “national security” that they would have strongly resisted in previous decades. The various provisions of the Patriot Act and the surveillance regime and its abuses epitomized by the NSA are a case in point.

The trend toward a more intrusive, militaristic state has become decidedly more pronounced since the September 11 attacks and the government’s response, but there were unmistakable signs even before that terrible day. My colleagues at the Cato Institute have done an excellent job documenting the gradual militarization of America’s police forces, beginning in the 1980s, with the proliferation of SWAT teams and the equipping of police units with ever more lethal military hardware. The terrorism threat simply provides the latest, most convenient justification to intensify a trend that was already well underway. Most SWAT raids in fact have nothing to do with terrorism; they are used to serve search or arrest warrants in low-level drug cases.

Americans are rapidly approaching the point where they must make a stark choice. Either the United States adopts a more circumspect role in the world—in part to preserve what is left of its domestic liberties—or those liberties will continue to erode (perhaps beyond the point of recovery) in the name of national security. That choice will determine not only how the United States is defended in the future but whether this country retains the values and principles that make it worth defending.

Is it really a one or the other tradeoff?

The story linked here is about more than the MIC. And no, we are not revisiting that. Take it to PM with Travis.

DWags wrote:

Turtleneck wrote:The story linked here is about more than the MIC. And no, we are not revisiting that. Take it to PM with Travis.

They run your life. Dim wit.

You're watching too many movies.

Bump for X

Giving cops toys used for decimating foreign countries with all the R&D and manufacturing paid for by.... You guessed it... While gradually increasing oversight on individual possessions and right to self defense...

I don't see the problem here. Sounds like it will all work out swimmingly. There's no long game at work.

Sometimes I get the feeling that you don't like taxes very much xsanguine

Mind yer mouth Travis or I'll be taxing dat azzz......

xsanguine wrote:Giving cops toys used for decimating foreign countries with all the R&D and manufacturing paid for by.... You guessed it... While gradually increasing oversight on individual possessions and right to self defense...

I don't see the problem here. Sounds like it will all work out swimmingly. There's no long game at work.

I am a little more concerned with the psychological factor. We seem to be embracing more authoritarian politics; more willing to accept restrictions and intrusions on our civil liberties.

Turtleneck wrote:

xsanguine wrote:Giving cops toys used for decimating foreign countries with all the R&D and manufacturing paid for by.... You guessed it... While gradually increasing oversight on individual possessions and right to self defense...

I don't see the problem here. Sounds like it will all work out swimmingly. There's no long game at work.

I am a little more concerned with the psychological factor. We seem to be embracing more authoritarian politics; more willing to accept restrictions and intrusions on our civil liberties.

Well yeah, look what our media perpetuates. Everyone's being shot, if they say mean things it's understandable that you wait outside their political events and physically assault dozens of attendees leaving and is the same as attending one of their events to interrupt it and security aggressively gets you out of the event, we need to tax people who make money more to give over to government which will be spent exactly the same way as it has been.

We continue on this trajectory, we'll lose the 1st amendment except in name only. Just like with the 2nd amendment. It's only going to get worse for rights from here on out, not better.

Plus, 85% of people on this planet are useless. We're technically all useless in the grand scheme of things but there's a large portion of America that is simply useless people. The more you get people like that the more they vote for someone else to take care of them. And those are the people that often breed more than useful people. Those individuals take on the traits of their parents and you just multiply useless people to create an even bigger number of voters that just don't see the scam and "der derp, I gotta vote cause that's what I'm suppose ta do as an "American", derpy derp!". That whole system is a sham, it doesn't operate like it's marketed in indoctrination camps (public schools). Nationalism is just a religion. Groups don't mean shit if the individual doesn't first and foremost.

Ever hear the Rogan bit about his theory on the pyramids? That's where we're headed.

@5:45

Joe Rogan is one of the dumb useless people. He is better at supervising worm eating than social, economic, or political commentary.

I assumed you would take this in the direction of "leftist media and leftist activists." It is really much more than that, but understanding the bigger picture would mean you would have to expose yourself to new ideas and literature.

http://www.amazon.com/Authoritarianism-Polarization-American-Politics-Hetherington/dp/052171124X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1465255553&sr=8-1&keywords=Jonathan+Weiler

Joe Rogan admits this in the opening seconds of that entire segment.

The right had their time in the 90's and 2000's. This will continue on the left's side until a similar pendulum swings and then we'll be back at it talking about prayer in school and becoming a Christian nation again.