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State Terror, American Style

paulkrugman.substack.com

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Re: State Terror, American Style

#21

Post by tdeck »

SkipperCat wrote: post #16
bko wrote: post #9

[flagged]

> But I've never talked to a person in a rich neighborhood that would turn down more police Rich people in safe neighborhoods very commonly turn down police because they don't want their local taxes to go up. It's as simple as that. You can also add to the fact that they don't want their children slammed into the pavement for minor infractions such as having an open container beverage or doing 35 in a 25 mph zone. It…

> You can also add to the fact that they don't want their children slammed into the pavement for minor infractions such as having an open container beverage or doing 35 in a 25 mph zone.

Rich people can count on being treated differently by police.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#22

Post by bko »

BLKNSLVR wrote: post #13
bko wrote: post #9

[flagged]

This article, from my reading, is separating this particular behaviour from normal law enforcement behaviour, and within that space of difference is the problem. It is a problem of recent creation.

'democracy' is used 4 times. Arguments like this:

>But as I said, this isn’t about crime. It’s about paranoid conspiracy theories and an attempt to dismantle democracy.

Most people don't think of 'normal law enforcement', they just see crime, people in the country illegally and others trying to make law enforcements job harder. They don't care about these types of arguments about how this is different from "normal" law enforcement.

You can care about these arguments , and a small percentage of people do, but if you want to be persuasive to the overwhelming majority, you have to put it in concrete terms how more police and law enforcement is actually bad.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#23

Post by foogazi »

actionfromafar wrote: post #8
MSFT_Edging wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it's because we've gotten so used to avoiding political speech as a method of "civility", we've collectively put our heads in the sand. The people who were shouting their worries and concerns were told they were being political. Politics is just life now a days, I don't know how you can actually excise that.

"Please avoid political speech" is often just shorthand for "you are not allowed to talk about how the current rules just so happen to be my rules".

Flagged!

Re: State Terror, American Style

#25

Post by piva00 »

lapcat wrote: post #14
evelant wrote: post #2

It certainly doesn’t feel good to have turned out being correct after warning that this is where we were headed way back in the dubyah years. This has always been the plan, it hasn’t been hidden, corporate media has just succeeded in sanewashing it for decades. Abdication of journalistic responsibility in the name of profits has allowed construction of alternate realities for so many people that these atrocities are…

> It certainly doesn’t feel good to have turned out being correct after warning that this is where we were headed way back in the dubyah years. This has been happening long before W, and the Democrats are complicit too: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_speech_zone

It might take a couple more generations, a lot more misery, and maybe even a complete breakdown of democracy in the USA, for its population to finally learn that Democrats or Republicans are bound to the same higher power in the USA: money.

Money is what decides everything, the speeding up of its accumulation brought by neoliberal economic policies under Reagan and onwards just made it abundantly clear that either party will always look out for the moneyed interests, anything else they might champion for is just there to give a veneer of democratic legitimacy. It's the foundation of American democracy, donations, aggressive lobbying, business-first mentality, the votes are there just to decide which side of the coin will move these interests forward, not to decide what platform is best for the citizenry in general.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#26

Post by bko »

SkipperCat wrote: post #16
bko wrote: post #9

[flagged]

> But I've never talked to a person in a rich neighborhood that would turn down more police Rich people in safe neighborhoods very commonly turn down police because they don't want their local taxes to go up. It's as simple as that. You can also add to the fact that they don't want their children slammed into the pavement for minor infractions such as having an open container beverage or doing 35 in a 25 mph zone. It…

> You can also add to the fact that they don't want their children slammed into the pavement for minor infractions such as having an open container beverage or doing 35 in a 25 mph zone.

This is what I'm talking about. Completely delusional about what police do, or at least the perception of police in rich neighborhoods.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#27

Post by [deleted] »

tdeck wrote: post #11
srean wrote: post #6

What I found so remarkable was Trump's address to the generals. I am a little queasy of throwing the fascism word around willy nilly, but the story of "internal enemies" could not have been more formulaic.

This was after Trump's secretary of war said the following on the same stage: “We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy,” Hegseth said. “We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.” It's not exactly subtle. The message i…

[deleted]

Re: State Terror, American Style

#28

Post by j4102_ »

bko wrote: post #9

[flagged]

I agree with your normie sentiments but I also think the extreme language and amount of force being used by the Trump administration are also something most normies disagree with. People want civility and everything is opposite of that right now

Re: State Terror, American Style

#29

Post by CGMthrowaway »

SkipperCat wrote: post #16
bko wrote: post #9

[flagged]

> But I've never talked to a person in a rich neighborhood that would turn down more police Rich people in safe neighborhoods very commonly turn down police because they don't want their local taxes to go up. It's as simple as that. You can also add to the fact that they don't want their children slammed into the pavement for minor infractions such as having an open container beverage or doing 35 in a 25 mph zone. It…

My friend lives in a rich neighborhood in inner Chicago and they all chip in to pay extra for private security patrols through the neighborhood because they don't have enough cops. On top of one of the highest property tax in the country (2.1%) and sales tax (10.75%), etc etc.

Re: State Terror, American Style

#30

Post by BLKNSLVR »

tdeck wrote: post #11
srean wrote: post #6

What I found so remarkable was Trump's address to the generals. I am a little queasy of throwing the fascism word around willy nilly, but the story of "internal enemies" could not have been more formulaic.

This was after Trump's secretary of war said the following on the same stage: “We unleash overwhelming and punishing violence on the enemy,” Hegseth said. “We also don’t fight with stupid rules of engagement. We untie the hands of our warfighters to intimidate, demoralize, hunt and kill the enemies of our country. No more politically correct and overbearing rules of engagement.” It's not exactly subtle. The message i…

> stupid rules of engagement

This should be repeated far and wide in the media for, as you have specified, what it really means.

I mean, Secretary Pete Hegseth, in his prior role as a Fox News mouthpiece, he defended the actions of a convicted war criminal[0][1], so he has form in displaying a total lack of ethics.

[0]: https://time.com/7176342/pete-hegseth-donald-trump-pardon-wa...

[1]: https://www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/turning-a-blind-eye...

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