For me (not OP) a clear example I can give from a collage of my past three visits: arrive at JFK, get in the immigration queue, heavily armed agents walking around, some ICE agents looking tough surrounding the area, someone is directing the queue like we are cattle.
Get to the immigration officer, answer questions, get a cold stare a few times looking at me and my passport, unpleasantly asked why do I have two passports (I'm a dual citizen), told I don't look Swedish (of course, I'm naturalised), get told to wait, they leave to get someone else to check something, two immigration officers start shuffling my passport, wait while no one talks to me or acknowledge I'm there, passport stamped and I get told to "move".
Get my bags, and out of the terminal, on the walk through the terminal there's another 15-20 officers with rifles strutting around, get out of the terminal and there are two massive armoured cars from NYPD parked up front, more cops looking a bit tough.
It's an overwhelming presence of "security" everywhere, signs plastered with messages about how illegal stuff will be punished (littering, leaving your bags unattended, smoking, every message seems to say something about "under penalty of the law").
I think if you live with that all the time it's easy to filter out the noise but there's an eery feeling of oppression all around, like a boot is just waiting the right moment to stomp on you.
Nah. The first thing I saw when I walked out of Anchorage airport is a truck with a bumper sticker saying "my truck is worth more than your life."
Every bad thing in the US is a caricature of what caricatures were 50 years ago.
Nothing wrong indeed with the sticker that says "I value my life more than your truck". Unfortunately that is not the sticker the OP was talking about.
Lores said that: bumper sticker saying "my truck is worth more than your life."
My point is that that is a very sensible bumper sticker, because it only applies if someone thinks they want to steal the truck, clearly valuing their life less than the truck, proving the sticker’s point.
It’s a common sticker. People who are shot in a robbery (or their kin if they don’t survive) commonly claim “why would the victim who defended themselves value their stuff more than the thief’s life” without failing to consider the thief themselves valued their own life less than the stuff they were attempting to steal.
It’s a common sentiment in free places, those who values abiding citizens more than law breaking citizens.
By that definition, what are the free places in the world then? Because a very, very minority of them allow stuff to possess higher value than a human life.
You should look into positive freedom vs negative freedom for a starter.
In America, that would be everyone’s own house plus every dark place where a phone may look like a gun plus every place where a thief comes armed, plus every place where the thief exercises violence and you fear for your life, to start.
Barbing · · focus · HN ↗
> And we just want people to be safe.
We’d all be safer if we were in jail (sorry to give the clown ideas)
akokanka · · focus · HN ↗
hyperlinerapp · · focus · HN ↗
piva00 · · focus · HN ↗
Get to the immigration officer, answer questions, get a cold stare a few times looking at me and my passport, unpleasantly asked why do I have two passports (I'm a dual citizen), told I don't look Swedish (of course, I'm naturalised), get told to wait, they leave to get someone else to check something, two immigration officers start shuffling my passport, wait while no one talks to me or acknowledge I'm there, passport stamped and I get told to "move".
Get my bags, and out of the terminal, on the walk through the terminal there's another 15-20 officers with rifles strutting around, get out of the terminal and there are two massive armoured cars from NYPD parked up front, more cops looking a bit tough.
It's an overwhelming presence of "security" everywhere, signs plastered with messages about how illegal stuff will be punished (littering, leaving your bags unattended, smoking, every message seems to say something about "under penalty of the law").
I think if you live with that all the time it's easy to filter out the noise but there's an eery feeling of oppression all around, like a boot is just waiting the right moment to stomp on you.
hyperlinerapp · · focus · HN ↗
[dead]
lores · · focus · HN ↗
Every bad thing in the US is a caricature of what caricatures were 50 years ago.
hyperlinerapp · · focus · HN ↗
From my PoV, it seems odd someone would value someone else’s truck more than their own life!
Phemist · · focus · HN ↗
hyperlinerapp · · focus · HN ↗
piva00 · · focus · HN ↗
Can you clarify?
hyperlinerapp · · focus · HN ↗
My point is that that is a very sensible bumper sticker, because it only applies if someone thinks they want to steal the truck, clearly valuing their life less than the truck, proving the sticker’s point.
It’s a common sticker. People who are shot in a robbery (or their kin if they don’t survive) commonly claim “why would the victim who defended themselves value their stuff more than the thief’s life” without failing to consider the thief themselves valued their own life less than the stuff they were attempting to steal.
It’s a common sentiment in free places, those who values abiding citizens more than law breaking citizens.
piva00 · · focus · HN ↗
Most free places value human life higher than stuff.
hyperlinerapp · · focus · HN ↗
piva00 · · focus · HN ↗
You should look into positive freedom vs negative freedom for a starter.
hyperlinerapp · · focus · HN ↗