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Defeated

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Re: Defeated

#391

Post by r00fus »

amirmc wrote: post #330
jballanc wrote: post #172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd like to replace your bear with a pendulum. History has shown that public sentiment towards authoritarianism is cyclical. Certainly Nazi Germany represented an authoritarian regime that was more repressive than the current US government (history will tell how long this remains true...), but that played out. Now Germany has a wonderful framework of laws and regulations to guard personal privacy. What leaving does i…

> "Now Germany has a wonderful framework of laws and regulations to guard personal privacy." The part you're conveniently forgetting is at what cost? Sure, the pendulum may swing back the other way eventually but how many lives are going to be destroyed during these unnecessary oscillations.

Reminds me of a Keynes quote: "Markets can remain irrational longer than you can remain solvent."

In this case, the pendulum can remain autocratic far longer than your life is worth it - if you feel that fighting is not possible, perhaps the best move is to worry about your own (family's) safety first.

Re: Defeated

#392

Post by scottlilly »

genwin wrote: post #356
scottlilly wrote: post #294

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You're 100% correct about the incredible amount of bureaucracy for getting residency in Uruguay. After almost a year of waiting, and being told it would probably be at least another six months to a year to have my residency completed, I gave up and moved to Paraguay. Getting permanent residency in Paraguay was fairly simple. I completed it in about seven months (partially because I needed to wait for my FBI backgroun…

Why an FBI background check for residency in Paraguay? Is this Paraguay's version of FBI? Just curious.

For most countries that I'm aware of, when you apply for permanent residency you need to submit a criminal background check from your home country. They don't want to let in fugitives or violent criminals.

For US citizens, that means the FBI (although you generally have your fingerprints taken by your local police, and send the fingerprint card to the FBI). Since I was already in South America, I had my fingerprints taken at the Paraguayan Interpol office. I sent them to the FBI in the US and waited about 75 days to get my results back.

I also had to get fingerprinted for a criminal background check by the Paraguayan police, even though I had never been in Paraguay before.

Other than that, the process was fairly simple - a copy of my birth certificate (certified by the Paraguayan consulate in the US), a couple of visa-sized photos, and US$5000 to deposit in a local bank for the duration of my application (to prove I'm financially solvent). If you're married or divorced, you'll also need to have those papers legalized.

Re: Defeated

#393

Post by pbreit »

jballanc wrote: post #32

There is an extremely simple solution: leave. I've not lived in the US for almost two years now. I've only had to travel back twice in that time. Meanwhile, in the same time I've visited France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany multiple times. None of those travel experiences were nearly as unpleasant or stressful as my two trips to the US. Furthermore, the technology communities that are growing up in these pla…

Not "simple" and certainly not "extremely simple".

Re: Defeated

#394

Post by r00fus »

3pt14159 wrote: post #293
pinaceae wrote: post #215

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as someone who recently moved TO the US - you are delusional. as if there is a magic, fairy place that is freedom and liberty and pixies. Asia? good luck, the individual has awesome rights, try talking badly about the thai royalty for example. go on, please do. Europe? Just moved from there, great place. But if you're looking for the right to act out your individual freedom (which ends where it impacts the freedom of…

Just off the top of my head, countries that are both freer and less insane: Canada, The Netherlands, Norway, Iceland, New Zealand, Singapore, Estonia, Latvia, Switzerland. Freer in terms of personal freedom, civil rights, economic freedom. In the US you have: 1. Forced to sign up for the draft. 2. Your "Army Reserves" and "National Guard" DEPLOYED to fun places like Afghanistan on a rotating schedule. No they did not…

While I agree with you on numerous points, your point #1 is pretty much par for the course in lots of countries.

In fact, I think the move to not draft those signed up (forcibly, I agree) is the reason that some of the other points (e.g.: #2,#3) are even issues - if the burden of war were spread in a regular manner (and forcibly) on the US populace, there would be very little tolerance for war... all those armchair soldiers buying guns would be off fighting a war or suffering through a family member getting killed/wounded involuntarily (just like the poor citizens of the country that's being occupied).

Re: Defeated

#395

Post by wpietri »

hyperventilator wrote: post #360
wpietri wrote: post #337

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You asked a question. I gave you an answer. If you have a problem with that, try breathing into a paper bag for a while and see if that helps you calm down. This technology could be plausibly misused for security purposes, and then perverted for political purposes, just like previous security technologies/bureaucracies have. That shouldn't make you upset at the people pointing it out. Instead, direct your outrage at…

I responded asking how far it should go. My name is for people like you.

How far should what go, O cowardly dick?

I think the powers of the state to spy on its citizens should be minimal and tightly controlled, because historically they always have been abused, and modern technology makes it much easier to run a surveillance state. So if you're asking how far surveillance should go, I'd say, "quite a ways back."

I'm not particularly worried about it, though, not in the US. As my links indicate, we've been through waves of this before. As long as government stays in the hands of the people, I believe this sort of thing will come out, cause outrage, and get pruned back.

My real worry is the rising Gini coefficient and the rise in intergenerational correlation in wealth and power. If we end up with something like a ruling class, then that cycle of error and correction will fail. Some would argue that the failure to punish anybody for the crimes leading up to the economic crash is a sign we're already there, but I don't believe it's true yet.

Re: Defeated

#396

Post by VMG »

brazzy wrote: post #117
VMG wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

my mentality is "I want some milk" and "I bet the gas stations are pretty happy about the Ladenöffnungszeitengesetz"

In Japan, there is no such law, and nearly all stores close at 8 PM anyway, many on sundays as well. There are 24/7 convenience stores which are almost exactly like German gas stations minus the gas. The net effect: harldy any difference.

Thanks, I'll bring up that example the next time somebody tries to convince me that we need a law and the market can't regulate itself.

Re: Defeated

#398

Post by mdellabitta »

mosburger wrote: post #89
jballanc wrote: post #32

There is an extremely simple solution: leave. I've not lived in the US for almost two years now. I've only had to travel back twice in that time. Meanwhile, in the same time I've visited France, Belgium, the Netherlands, and Germany multiple times. None of those travel experiences were nearly as unpleasant or stressful as my two trips to the US. Furthermore, the technology communities that are growing up in these pla…

"Extremely simple?" There's lots of reasons it isn't so simple for people. 1) Barriers to work and emigration 2) Language barriers - I know that learning a new language isn't impossible (I know a little Spanish but I'd hardly call myself fluent), but I speak only English fluently, which limits me to a handful of nations, many of which are nearly as bad as the United States (hey UK, how are those surveillance cameras?…

Just FYI, you mean 'immigration,' not 'emigration'.

Re: Defeated

#399

Post by arnarbi »

JabavuAdams wrote: post #358
potatolicious wrote: post #254

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few reasons: - They actively image your naked body. Metal detectors do not. - They record said image of our naked body for an indefinite amount of time. Metal detectors do not. - A human views the image of your naked body, and makes a subjective assessment of whether or not something suspicious has been detected, based on a wide range of parameters. A metal detector is a simple on/off detection based on an extremel…

An undesirable side-effect of discarding the images is that there's no paper trail. This has been a problem for electronic voting machines. Imagine you wanted to fight a decision later in court ... assuming that's possible ...

The only decision you might want to fight is not being let on the plane, and this will only happen after a physical search, or you refusing to subject to one. In either case, the scanner data seems irrelevant.

Re: Defeated

#400

Post by DjangoReinhardt »

Non-American here. Can someone point me to what exactly happens if you opt-out of these screenings? What happens on this 'opt-out floor-mat of shame'?

I'm asking out of pure curiosity and prefer not to search those keywords and get added to some list and have an eye-in-the-sky suddenly trained on me. It is completely understandable if you choose not to answer this question.

Thanks for reading, though. :)

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