On Tue, Jan 13, 2015 at 8:42 PM, meekerdb <[email protected]> wrote:
> On 1/13/2015 7:34 AM, Telmo Menezes wrote: > > Really? On this list? Where? I read criticism of the NSA, of Obama, >> of U.S. foreign policy everywhere. There's a whole industry built around >> it on radio. >> > > That sort of criticism is innocuous and everyone knows it. The powerful > are not threatened by that sort of stuff. They probably even like it, it > only reinforces the two-party system. > > What they are threatened is by people openly discussing experiences with > things that the social norms forbid. This guarantees, especially for > political candidates, that only the most bland social-norm-abiding > candidates will ever make it to power. And thus we are dead-locked into > total conformity. > > > So in what way are you forced to conform? Do you want to have sex with > sheep? > No. > Do you want to shoot up heroin? > Not now, but I would like the option if I were terminally ill. > Do you want print your own money? > Maybe. > Do you want to own a machine gun? > Yes! > I know email lists where all those things are discussed. > I have stopped myself from doing Google searches because I was curious about something but then realised how it could sound. Maybe I am very paranoid, but I suspect this is not such an uncommon experience. > There is no loss of freedom if you are merely forbidden to do something > you never wanted to do anyway? Of course political candidates are bland > and social-norm-abiding. What would you expect in a democracy? Are you > hoping for Le Pen or Emerson or some new Hitler? > No, just something a bit less Orwellian than what we have: http://money.cnn.com/2015/01/13/technology/security/cameron-messaging-data/index.html Telmo. > > Brent > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "Everything List" group. > To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an > email to [email protected]. > To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. > Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. > For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout. > -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Everything List" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/everything-list. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
