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I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

theguardian.com

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Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#161

Post by TylerE »

jernfrost wrote: post #105
jMyles wrote: post #4

The prison system in general, and solitary confinement (and other forms of emotional torture) in particular is a good enough reason in my opinion to dismantle the state and start over. And it's only one of about 4-5 good reasons right now. Let's do it.

How about reform? Revolutions have never worked. They just lead to more violence. I think the problem is that there are too many problems in the US and people focus on too many issues rather than focusing on the underlying issues. Little can happen until the election system is changed. Hence one needs to vote in politicians who will change it. To make that happen more young people and minorities need to vote. That me…

> Revolutions have never worked

I suspect the French would disagree.

Also, we haven't exactly been paying tea tax to Britain for the last 230-odd years either, for that matter.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#162

Post by weirdkid »

pillowkusis wrote: post #26
arcticbull wrote: post #7

Honestly, I find the US prison system absolutely horrifying in all respects. As satisfying as it may be for victims to feel the person that did something to them is 'gone' they will eventually be let out, and when they do I want them to be ready to integrate with society. Recidivism rates in the US show it is objectively not working, with state prisons leaving inmates to re-offend 76% of the time. [1] In Norway, much…

the challenge is that literally nobody is incentivized to make changes to this system. the situation is really bad for politicians. A politican voting to reform a clearly broken prison system faces tons of risks to their career. Even one wrong vote for improving the prison system will get you labeled as "soft on crime," a dangerous liability for Democrats and nearly a death sentence for Republicans. Every change you…

Willie Horton was used in this way to have an incredible negative impact on the Dukakis campaign in 1998. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Willie_Horton

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#163

Post by coldtea »

dev360 wrote: post #114
coldtea wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They also point fingers and lip service democracy globally, while having their bases all around the globe, meddling with sovereign countries abroad, helping topple legitimate governments, and funding / being cozy with all kinds of scum, from Suharto and the Shah, to Pinochet and the saudis (not to mention arming and befriending half of today's militant islamists, including the celebrated in the 80s Taliban). But that…

I encountered this argument all the time when I came back to Sweden after living in the US for 15 years. Would you rather have Putin or China run the show?

I'd rather we didn't have any imperialist world power.

And, besides, neither Putin nor China are that. Whether due to being less power, or from a long history of being non interventional and isolationist, at most, they are concerned with their own national interests, in their own backyard (South China Sea, Ukraine, etc). That is, like any other country.

I don't care what they do within their borders and with their neighbour's that they have disputes with -- that's for them to sort out.

But when a country pushes their army bases in my country, controls local politics, or even goes to fund and arm a dictatorship in my own country from half a world away in the name of "their national interests" (as if they are entitled to have any say on how things are run in a sovereign country half a world away), that I don't like.

I also don't care for world cops, especially if they are trigger happy, and hypocritically push their own interests as some holy crusade.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#164

Post by anigbrowl »

coldtea wrote: post #10
mnm1 wrote: post #2

If being imprisoned and enslaved isn't cruel and unusual punishment, I don't know what is. The constitution doesn't prohibit shit with its useless words in this case.

I always found the faith in the revered interpretations of some constitutional document written centuries ago, and the respect for the "Founding Fathers" not as historical figures, but as some kind of guiding lights for today, totally bizarro. Even the name "Founding Fathers" and the way it's thrown around seems quite bizarre for a democracy. It's the people, and the will of the people, that should be respected, not…

It's been a very useful ideological tool for people who understand how to wield power and are in a position to do so.

I personally think the Republic is far overdue for a refounding, and strongly suspect that the founders of the existing one would have heartily agreed ;-)

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#165

Post by dragonwriter »

TylerE wrote: post #161
jernfrost wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How about reform? Revolutions have never worked. They just lead to more violence. I think the problem is that there are too many problems in the US and people focus on too many issues rather than focusing on the underlying issues. Little can happen until the election system is changed. Hence one needs to vote in politicians who will change it. To make that happen more young people and minorities need to vote. That me…

> Revolutions have never worked I suspect the French would disagree. Also, we haven't exactly been paying tea tax to Britain for the last 230-odd years either, for that matter.

> > Revolutions have never worked

> I suspect the French would disagree.

France (and particularly the 1789 and 1848 revolutions) is pretty much the first example people making that claim point to. (Though I suppose you can make a case that the 1848 revolution worked, it just faced an extended counterrevolutionary setback in the form of the Second Empire.)

> Also, we haven't exactly been paying tea tax to Britain for the last 230-odd years either, for that matter.

Regional separatist movements are a different thing than revolutions, even if one of the latter gets named as if it were the former.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#166

Post by DennisP »

coldtea wrote: post #119
DennisP wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Constitution isn't just a historical document, it's the law. It's certainly open to change by the will of the people, and it defines a process for doing so, which has been used seventeen times. It's not the only law we interpret this way, considering the intent of the people who created it; courts do the same with laws passed by Congress.

Yes, and there amendments etc. But in public discourse, it's not treated as a mere law, something humans created, and they could toss if they like, but as some kind of holy scripture given by some wise old men.

There are plenty of people who treat it as some dusty old-fashioned document that we should just ignore, instead of what it is, which is the law of the land.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#167

Post by orf »

irrational wrote: post #156
orf wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your point about great Britian isn't completely correct, no power could have stood against the empire at its peak. France could have given it a go perhaps, and did around 1800 and where beaten (Waterloo! Waterloo! Waterloo!). The differences you talk about now are, in my opinion, down to advanced weaponry. Where before it was about manpower (and England's vast empire made procurement of such very easy) and sailing (a…

Wait, didn't the US (not that the US existed yet) with the help of the French stand up to Great Britain at its peak?

At the peak of the first empire, maybe. But a monarchy is only as good as it's leader, and king George was not a good one

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#168

Post by canadaduane »

mmirate wrote: post #141
Toenex wrote: post #88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> The world was divided into order and chaos not good and evil. What an interesting point.

From a modern viewpoint, I fail to comprehend how Order/Chaos is not merely a special case of Good/Evil. Biological life/intelligence, and the Earth it inhabits, is Order, an unusual low-entropy arrangement of matter; whereas the ultimate Chaos is the cosmological Heat Death.

Perhaps it's the psychological effect that's salient--the honor/shame spectrum, rather than the good-explanation/bad-explanation spectrum.

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#169

Post by adrice727 »

linuxhansl wrote: post #149
gallerdude wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you elaborate on this - would love to resolve my fear.

Look into vipassana or insight meditation. It's something _everybody_ can learn and do, there is nothing mystical or religious or secret about it. You usually start with samadhi (or concentration), where you simply observe your breath - either as air movement through your nostrils or as movements of the abdomen. In the beginning you can count your breaths 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, and 1 again. Most people lose trac…

I practiced more traditional methods of Vipassana (U Ba Khin and Mahasi Sayadaw) for years, but have actually found a combined metta/insight practice [1] to be more effective, both in terms of mental/emotional wellbeing and progress of insight.

1. http://library.dhammasukha.org/uploads/1/2/8/6/12865490/a_gu...

Re: I spent 29 years in solitary confinement (2010)

#170

Post by aaron-lebo »

jernfrost wrote: post #93
aaron-lebo wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But that wasn't always the deal. The US up until 1900 was not the top dog. Yeah, the US has a lot of flaws that need to be reformed, but that doesn't make it any different than any more country in history, it makes it exactly like them. It's not an American problem, it's a human problem. When we understand that and stop pointing we'll all be better off.

I strongly disagree. The US is the most powerful country EVER in human history. It has the ability to invade and influence any country on the planet. No country in the past really had that ability. When Great Britain rules much of the world, they were no superpower like the US today. There were countless countries in Europe which could all challenge Britain militarily. Back then there was many great powers. Today the…

What is unique about the US historically is that they have always claimed to be spreading freedom while frequently doing the exact opposite. Of course it is really just a new twist to the old western excuse for invading: we are civilizing your, or: we are bringing christianity to the poor masses.

But this isn't unique nor Western. The Persians invaded Greece. The Chinese invaded Tibet. Great Britain at the height of its power was screwing over China and India and that's maybe even more impressive from a power projection standpoint considering just how small England was and how much less technology they had.

I don't believe that you actually think that Americans are somehow different from the rest of humanity. Out of 300 million people there are a lot of Americans who don't agree with everything their country does.

There is good and bad, and to act like the US is some kind of extreme outlier is prejudiced and not honest about history. It was less than 100 years ago that every European power had colonies and it was less than 75 that the Japanese and Germans were murdering other peoples in the service of empire.

It's a human thing.

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