Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to be highly political on Facebook. From my experience, people just don't care.
Do it in reality
CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
31–40 of 182 posts
Re: CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
#32The value systems of the people running this must be severely distorted. Can't torture at home so let's fly people to some dictatorship to get it done there. I guess it's the same mindset that caused a democratically elected president in Iran to be overthrown and replaced by a dictator in order to save freedom and democracy.
People are tortured in the US all the time. All the time.
Ordinary prisons are well-known example, where one can be subject to solitary confinement, denial of medical care, subjection to temperature extremes, beatings, and rape so common that it's the subject of the most common prison-related jokes.
Military recruits are often tortured to "toughen them up", as punishment, or ostensibly to prepare them for possible torture at the hands of "The Enemy".
Hazings at colleges and universities are often effectively torture.
Re: CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
#33Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wouldn’t say it’s their value system, rather it’s a result of the enormous pressure they face. Torture should only be used as a last resort, and when there’s no other hope of getting information that is needed ASAP.
It's the value system. Either you follow the laws and values of your country always or you don't. You can't protect values by violating them.
Re: CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
#34The value systems of the people running this must be severely distorted. Can't torture at home so let's fly people to some dictatorship to get it done there. I guess it's the same mindset that caused a democratically elected president in Iran to be overthrown and replaced by a dictator in order to save freedom and democracy.
I wouldn’t say it’s their value system, rather it’s a result of the enormous pressure they face. Torture should only be used as a last resort, and when there’s no other hope of getting information that is needed ASAP.
Re: CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
#35The value systems of the people running this must be severely distorted. Can't torture at home so let's fly people to some dictatorship to get it done there. I guess it's the same mindset that caused a democratically elected president in Iran to be overthrown and replaced by a dictator in order to save freedom and democracy.
"Can't torture at home so let's fly people to some dictatorship to get it done there." People are tortured in the US all the time. All the time. Ordinary prisons are well-known example, where one can be subject to solitary confinement, denial of medical care, subjection to temperature extremes, beatings, and rape so common that it's the subject of the most common prison-related jokes. Military recruits are often tort…
Re: CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
#36The value systems of the people running this must be severely distorted. Can't torture at home so let's fly people to some dictatorship to get it done there. I guess it's the same mindset that caused a democratically elected president in Iran to be overthrown and replaced by a dictator in order to save freedom and democracy.
One of my passengers got 'ordinarily-renditioned' [0] to the county jail. They let her go after a few hours, when the city cops found someone else who actually matched the description of the petty beer thief they were looking for.
[0] http://www.taxiwars.org/2017/10/ordinary-rendition-public-se...
Last month I learned (via facebook) that another of my passengers got arrested (outstanding warrant - he'd missed a court date 2.5 years ago), and is suffering in jail. He's a diabetic, and has to submit to the time-release insulin injection they think he needs or they send him to solitary... I think time-release insulin is probably quite harmful when combined with the jail's starvation diet.
It seems to only take a handful of people to start a government-racket. Thereafter they seem to basically keep themselves going, and it takes acts of heroism to shut them down.
Re: CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We live in an age where "Muslim ban" sounds like appropriate policy to about half the population. In Democracy the people get the government they deserve. Guess we really don't deserve human rights and habeus corpus. So speak up. Educate your fellow citizens as to why these issues are important. Break through their media bubble/snowglobe and have multiple meaningful conversations that go deeper than the talking poi…
>So speak up. Educate your fellow citizens as to why these issues are important. Break through their media bubble/snowglobe and have multiple meaningful conversations that go deeper than the talking points spewed out by media personalities. Have you ever actually gotten that to work? Have you personally ever changed a single persons mind? Not trying to be facetious, but I'm incredulous.
I've also talked people out of supporting outrageous statements or made them question their own beliefs (rural relatives in South Dakota who loved talking about their lack of income tax now openly question why SD gets so much more government tax money than neighbouring MN etc).
That said, the point isn't to be "win", it's to have a dialogue, share ideas, and break out of the "us vs them" mentality.
Re: CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
#38Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We live in an age where "Muslim ban" sounds like appropriate policy to about half the population. In Democracy the people get the government they deserve. Guess we really don't deserve human rights and habeus corpus. So speak up. Educate your fellow citizens as to why these issues are important. Break through their media bubble/snowglobe and have multiple meaningful conversations that go deeper than the talking poi…
>So speak up. Educate your fellow citizens as to why these issues are important. Break through their media bubble/snowglobe and have multiple meaningful conversations that go deeper than the talking points spewed out by media personalities. Have you ever actually gotten that to work? Have you personally ever changed a single persons mind? Not trying to be facetious, but I'm incredulous.
It is extremely hard and works only with people not entirely webbed into "alternative media". I managed to get only one attendant of a Nazi march to rethink his views. In three years. Conspiracy theories are hard to break out of, especially for those without a job and doing nothing but watch "freemen of the land", "europe will be islamized" or "the hooton plan is real" (hooton plan = nazi nutjob theory that "the elite" wants to extinguish the Germans by having them breed with "weaker races") videos all day.
The rest, well... beating them like Spencer isn't exactly the most moral way either, but forcing them back into their caves at least keeps them off the streets. I don't want Nazis openly marching with torches on the streets.
Re: CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
#39Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We live in an age where "Muslim ban" sounds like appropriate policy to about half the population. In Democracy the people get the government they deserve. Guess we really don't deserve human rights and habeus corpus. So speak up. Educate your fellow citizens as to why these issues are important. Break through their media bubble/snowglobe and have multiple meaningful conversations that go deeper than the talking poi…
I used to be highly political on Facebook. From my experience, people just don't care.
Re: CIA rendition flights from rustic North Carolina called to account by citizens
#40Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We live in an age where "Muslim ban" sounds like appropriate policy to about half the population. In Democracy the people get the government they deserve. Guess we really don't deserve human rights and habeus corpus. So speak up. Educate your fellow citizens as to why these issues are important. Break through their media bubble/snowglobe and have multiple meaningful conversations that go deeper than the talking poi…
>So speak up. Educate your fellow citizens as to why these issues are important. Break through their media bubble/snowglobe and have multiple meaningful conversations that go deeper than the talking points spewed out by media personalities. Have you ever actually gotten that to work? Have you personally ever changed a single persons mind? Not trying to be facetious, but I'm incredulous.
I’ve found the most movement comes with frank and respectful exchange of ideas. I’ve moved a little as a result, and I’ve seen others move a bit too. Sometimes that movement has come simply from recognizing the other party isn’t as insane as common rhetoric would paint them.