Redefining rights

[FUCK THE POLICE]

 

[OrnotBitwise]

"Historically" maybe... presently? Hayul no! Big Government conservatives are equally bad for people's individual rights as Big Government liberals.

"Authoritarians" is, after all, probably the right word. And you can find authoritarians in any political camp, mine included.

The interesting thing is what goes into the making of an authoritarian. From my perspective, authoritarianism results from "knowing" (sic) how people ought to act and what they ought to think.

Also, they tend to wear ass-hats.

 

[FUCK THE POLICE]

"Authoritarians" is, after all, probably the right word. And you can find authoritarians in any political camp, mine included.

The interesting thing is what goes into the making of an authoritarian. From my perspective, authoritarianism results from "knowing" (sic) how people ought to act and what they ought to think.

Also, they tend to wear ass-hats.

They tend to be named "RStringfield".

 

[Beefy]

I'm not exactly sure what you mean by big government. I'm assuming, as a Libertarian, you're possibly refering to the amount of revenue a government takes in, relative to the whole economy. i.e., a big "spending" government.

I don't see a correlation between the amount of government spending/taxes/reveue, and authoritarianism.

Checking with the CIA factbook, liberal social democracies like Norway, Denmark, and Switzerland spend around 30 to 50% of their GDP on public services and government.

Some actual real authoritarian regimes have "smaller" government, in the sense that they allocate far less of their GDP on government expenditures. Venezuela, which is allegedly authoritarian, spends less of its GDP on public expenditures, i.e., "big government", than do the european social democracies.

I think authoritarianism is linked to the independence of the judicial system (or lack thereof), the rule of law, and whether or not that state supports a massive internal domestic "security" system. Not to "big government", in terms of revenue, taxation, spending, etc.

No, I'm not simply claiming that "big government" is simply a financial deal. But great job refuting that scarecrow.

Big government is a multitude of areas. The government now has decided what you can think, where you can travel, what you can eat, drink, smoke... Where you can live, if you can drive, what you can drive, ........
They are in every last aspect of our lives. Every last one.

 

[Cypress]

No, I'm not simply claiming that "big government" is simply a financial deal. But great job refuting that scarecrow.

Big government is a multitude of areas. The government now has decided what you can think, where you can travel, what you can eat, drink, smoke... Where you can live, if you can drive, what you can drive, ........
They are in every last aspect of our lives. Every last one.

I still say what you describe is authoritarian government, not "big govenment". Plenty of authoritarian regimes have "smaller" governments, than the liberal social welfare states of europe. With respect to determining where you travel, and what you can think, that is a function of a country with a lack of constitutional seperation of powers, and a neutered independent judiciary, and a police state domestic security apparatus.

With respect to food and smoking, and cars, I can only assume that as a former republican-turned-libertarian, the new york and california smoking laws and anti-trans fat laws bug the shit out of you - but to me that is not symptomatic of impending fascism.

I think we all know what the term "big government" is, and how its used by libertarians and republicans.


So, the only thing I'm nitpicking about, is that authoritarianism is not linked to some libertarian/conservative concept of big government. Its linked to the lack of a constitutional seperation of powers, and the lack of the rule of law in a country

 

[Litmus]

"Big Government" is just code word, for the constitution in exile crowd, who wants us to return to the days before Teddy Roosevelt. IMO

I don't think the term "big government" has much utility. Either you're an authoritarian, or you're not.

Outside of war, pentagon spending, health insurance for seniors and the poor, the federal government really doesn't do much, or influence our daily lives to any great extent.

Except when they decide to allow companies to ignore whatever laws they want, so we can be put out of work to boost the bottom line.

 

[uscitizen]

And the government could use them to keep track of the Paranoid Schizophrenics. In time they could use the implants to speak directly to their minds, telling them which manholes are portholes into the secret underground government and which tattoos are really listening devices.

Yep an id the child molester ones and alarm and summon cops if too close to an underage RFID.
Many possibilities....