Wonder what the "political correctness is bad" "nobody is allowed to crack jokes anymore" "cancel culture is out of control" crowd will say about this one...
They're gone, they don't exist anymore. Turns out they were fine as long as it was fascism.
Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
181–190 of 586 posts
Re: Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
#182A teacher in school told me about the time they visited East Germany. Armed guards poked though his luggage. It's a slippery slope toward fascism.
East Germany was not a fascist state, it was an explicitly anti-fascist state. Horribly authoritarian, with wanton disregard for human rights, yes, but not "fascist".
It's yet more evidence almost 0% of the population actually understands what "fascism" really is...
Re: Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
#183Earlier quoted context omitted.
Armed guards in 1980's East Germany open your luggage and poke through it by hand. TSA employees in 2000's USA scan your luggage and poke through it with technology. For any reason or no reason, they can open it up and poke through it by hand, or ask for assistance from nearby policemen with guns. Is there any moral difference? If so, what is it? (Also, nitpick: The East Germans were Communists, not fascists.)
Yes, the moral difference is in the motivation and consequences. We take into account motivation pretty often to evaluate morality not sure why you can't apply it here TSA's purpose is prevent harm to other passengers (effectiveness is debatable but not the point), the east German border guards were there to keep control on what information the population could access and share They are not the same thing even if the…
So basically, "when we do it it's good, when they do it it's bad"? I didn't think I'd see someone seriously practice such morality on this website.
Re: Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
#184"Comedy is legal again"
Actually, comedy is specifically illegal now
Re: Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
#185Hmmm, in what other country is it a punishable offence to make fun of its dear leaders? Thailand? North Korea? Myanmar? Like it or not, these countries are who you are being compared to.
Almost any country can deny entry at will of border officer.
And yet in practice, this example is rare. "Can" is not "should" or "is immune from criticism for doing so".
Re: Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
#186A teacher in school told me about the time they visited East Germany. Armed guards poked though his luggage. It's a slippery slope toward fascism.
>Armed guards poked though his luggage. It's a slippery slope toward fascism. Is it? Lack of rights at the border isn't "fascism", it's the norm. I don't think any country gives you 4th amendment (or similar) rights at the border, even liberal democracies.
And nearly all "rights" are rights of citizens, not visitors...
Re: Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
#187Earlier quoted context omitted.
In 2023, when tourism rates had yet to fully recover from Covid, over 66 million people visited the US from abroad. I don't have more recent statistics, but I'm going to assume that the number is the same or higher this year. Out of that population which could fill a decent-sized country, how many people have been treated so unfairly as the one in this article? How do those stats compare with other countries, and the…
I doubt it's that high with loads of Canadians not visiting the US. I planned last year to stop off in Hawaii and Seattle on the way from NZ to the UK this May, but in March this year I altered that and just did Vancouver instead as the stop-off. I know several friends and colleages who have also done similar (even two didn't go to weddings of friends in the US).
You're exaggerating the significance of Canadians in US tourism statistics. NY and MA have larger populations than ON and QC, Canada's two largest provinces. Therefore, even "loads" is a relatively small number.
Re: Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
#188from the article: > "They threatened me with a minimum fine of $5,000 or five years in prison if I refused to provide the password to my phone." this isn't real/legal/enforceable (as the law currently stands) is it? how does one protect ourselves against this turn of events upon entry when the immigration officer's claim fails the smell test?
IANAL, but I would expect that it's extremely unlikely to be fined or imprisoned when you can simply be deported prior to entry. Technically until you pass through border control, you aren't "in" the country you are traveling to, so they can simply refuse entry and deport you.
Re: Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
#189I’m no fan of the current administration but this is one person’s account so inherently 1 sided. I just flew in from Europe and most people were not searched. US border control don’t have time to systemically search the phones of all travelers. I’m guessing some other red flag triggered the questioning and phone search and denial (eg no return ticket or accommodation booked).
> it is the traveller's responsibility to have valid documents and be familiar with the current entry regulations This response from the Norwegian foreign office makes it seem like the man lacked proper documentation, which led to the search. However, it’s unclear to me whether the comment is specific to this case or just a general statement.
Bullshit. They won't let you board a plane heading towards the US without a valid ESTA/Visum and Passport
Re: Man 'refused entry into US' as border control catch him with bald JD Vance meme
#190Earlier quoted context omitted.
A little while ago Scott Alexander did a lengthy post about how Curtis Yarvin, aka Moldbug, has essentially backtracked on everything he ever said about tyranny and these days gleefully cheers on all the things he decried in his early writing. Yarvin's response was, essentially, "You actually believed that I believed that stuff? lmao, idiot. This was about power and now we have it, piss off." Yarvin is unusually cand…
This greatly concerns me. I'm not a historian, but this reminds me a bit of the prelude to the French Revolution: a growing list of grievances against a ruling class by a population that feels abused, disenfranchised, and numerous . Even if one expects to enjoy a sense of Schadenfreude were such a revolution/slaughter to occur, our staples of daily life (food, medicine, electricity, fuel) are distributed over such a…
Yeah, I see a whole lot of media parallels to Nazi Germany, but the two historical analogues that really pop to mind for me are the French Revolution and the Breakup of Yugoslavia. Both of which ended in slaughter - the Napoleonic Wars for the former and ethnic cleansing for the latter. People are crying dictatorship now, but I don't see that being the ending here; rather, I see it as being war and death on a massive scale.
The other thing to remember about the French Revolution was that nearly all the revolutionaries who came to power during it were dead by the end of it. The folks who are crying "We're in power now, suckas!" are being extremely stupid. Power doesn't last long at times like this.
The other thing that scares me is that the best place to be in all those historical times of crisis was an ocean away from the place where the crisis starts. But that doesn't work today; we have weapons with global reach that can level whole cities in 30 minutes. If the U.S. disintegrates nowhere on earth is safe.