What would America look like if it was truly the Land of the Free?

[The Conservative]

How we define freedom depends on what matters here. America is no longer the land of the free, if anything it's more free than a lot of other countries, but it still is downright oppressed in many others.

Cuba allows you to smoke and drink in public... or at least with an open canister. United States it's almost become illegal to do that... smoking, oh fuck that, you smoke and you may as well be the anti-christ...

Eat raw meat in a restaurant.. fuck that, it's only Sushi or nothing. The only rare example is a tatar...

Being able to tell people they are fucking idiots or they are doing something wrong without a person getting offended, BWHAHAH... good luck...and I don't mean telling them that they are wrong and an idiot... I mean wrong and giving a solid explanation.

I mean in a lot of ways when we stopped being Americans, we lost a lot of our freedoms... I sort of wonder how long it's going to take to get back there if we can at all? Do you ever think we could be the land of the free again? What would it take? What would the new version look like?

[TheReal_ND]

I want to be free from foreigners. Why does the government hate me?

[Smitty-48]

American Autobahn, pay to play, just sayun'...

[GloryofGreece]

I'm more interested in how we got to this sorry state. Postmodernism, pc, sjw, indoctrination, passiveness of many people, etc. etc. "Nerfing" the environment so to speak and decadence a la amusing ourselves to death with trivialities. I don't think we can "get back" to "freedom" The good of technology a long with the unintended consequences of softening of life has lead to malaise we are in. I think and fear the natural conclusion of this is a soft despotism in a mixture of what writers like Tocqueville to Aldulus Huxley wrote about. Not really a totalitarian dictatorship with armed gestapo esque police, informants, and death squads etc. but an overall mass acquiescence into the "welfare" state where for a long while until our destruction or transcendence into bionic/android "man". In this future you can kind of "think" about what you want, jerk off, watch entertainment, and take drugs but you cannot escape the churning wheel of "progress".

[BjornP]

I'm more interested in how we got to this sorry state. Postmodernism, pc, sjw, indoctrination, passiveness of many people, etc. etc. "Nerfing" the environment so to speak and decadence a la amusing ourselves to death with trivialities. I don't think we can "get back" to "freedom" The good of technology a long with the unintended consequences of softening of life has lead to malaise we are in. I think and fear the natural conclusion of this is a soft despotism in a mixture of what writers like Tocqueville to Aldulus Huxley wrote about. Not really a totalitarian dictatorship with armed gestapo esque police, informants, and death squads etc. but an overall mass acquiescence into the "welfare" state where for a long while until our destruction or transcendence into bionic/android "man". In this future you can kind of "think" about what you want, jerk off, watch entertainment, and take drugs but you cannot escape the churning wheel of "progress".

I'm thinking the pathological need to be "safe" and the ever-expanding meaning of what safety's supposed to mean is the origin.

http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/~bhatt/public ... ICSS05.pdf

Blame the obsession about being safe, or more importantly, the wider and wider definition of what "being safe" gets to mean.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I'm more interested in how we got to this sorry state. Postmodernism, pc, sjw, indoctrination, passiveness of many people, etc. etc. "Nerfing" the environment so to speak and decadence a la amusing ourselves to death with trivialities. I don't think we can "get back" to "freedom" The good of technology a long with the unintended consequences of softening of life has lead to malaise we are in. I think and fear the natural conclusion of this is a soft despotism in a mixture of what writers like Tocqueville to Aldulus Huxley wrote about. Not really a totalitarian dictatorship with armed gestapo esque police, informants, and death squads etc. but an overall mass acquiescence into the "welfare" state where for a long while until our destruction or transcendence into bionic/android "man". In this future you can kind of "think" about what you want, jerk off, watch entertainment, and take drugs but you cannot escape the churning wheel of "progress".

I'm thinking the pathological need to be "safe" and the ever-expanding meaning of what safety's supposed to mean is the origin.

http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/~bhatt/public ... ICSS05.pdf

Blame the obsession about being safe, or more importantly, the wider and wider definition of what "being safe" gets to mean.

This.

Americans have been completely pussified by the Cold War. We lost, in a way. And continue to lose against terrorism.

The means of control is easy enough to spot. We have hundreds of stations and media outlets poking us with cattle prods 24 hours a day, to get a click or a reaction, and scare us into sitting through an advertisement. The result of this has left us a quivering mass of uncertainty, retreating into our own little escapist fantasies and pleasures.

Brave New World, indeed.

[GloryofGreece]

I'm more interested in how we got to this sorry state. Postmodernism, pc, sjw, indoctrination, passiveness of many people, etc. etc. "Nerfing" the environment so to speak and decadence a la amusing ourselves to death with trivialities. I don't think we can "get back" to "freedom" The good of technology a long with the unintended consequences of softening of life has lead to malaise we are in. I think and fear the natural conclusion of this is a soft despotism in a mixture of what writers like Tocqueville to Aldulus Huxley wrote about. Not really a totalitarian dictatorship with armed gestapo esque police, informants, and death squads etc. but an overall mass acquiescence into the "welfare" state where for a long while until our destruction or transcendence into bionic/android "man". In this future you can kind of "think" about what you want, jerk off, watch entertainment, and take drugs but you cannot escape the churning wheel of "progress".

I'm thinking the pathological need to be "safe" and the ever-expanding meaning of what safety's supposed to mean is the origin.

http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/~bhatt/public ... ICSS05.pdf

Blame the obsession about being safe, or more importantly, the wider and wider definition of what "being safe" gets to mean.

This.

Americans have been completely pussified by the Cold War. We lost, in a way. And continue to lose against terrorism.

The means of control is easy enough to spot. We have hundreds of stations and media outlets poking us with cattle prods 24 hours a day, to get a click or a reaction, and scare us into sitting through an advertisement. The result of this has left us a quivering mass of uncertainty, retreating into our own little escapist fantasies and pleasures.

Brave New World, indeed.

So what label to you like using for the predicted future...totalitarian, authoritarianism, soft despotism, etc. etc. ?

[C-Mag]

Americans are generally soft, pampered and lazy............ that is our undoing. Because we no longer take responsibility for our lives we are willing to give up our Freedom incrementally for a sense of security and promise of a better world. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

All that said, we still have a tremendous amount of Freedom here, I don't care what the Freedom index says. Embrace it, take responsibility for it.

[The Conservative]

Americans are generally soft, pampered and lazy............ that is our undoing. Because we no longer take responsibility for our lives we are willing to give up our Freedom incrementally for a sense of security and promise of a better world. Unfortunately, it doesn't work that way.

All that said, we still have a tremendous amount of Freedom here, I don't care what the Freedom index says. Embrace it, take responsibility for it.

We have freedoms, but they are slowly being taken away by laws.

[SuburbanFarmer]

I'm thinking the pathological need to be "safe" and the ever-expanding meaning of what safety's supposed to mean is the origin.

http://www2.gi.alaska.edu/~bhatt/public ... ICSS05.pdf

Blame the obsession about being safe, or more importantly, the wider and wider definition of what "being safe" gets to mean.

This.

Americans have been completely pussified by the Cold War. We lost, in a way. And continue to lose against terrorism.

The means of control is easy enough to spot. We have hundreds of stations and media outlets poking us with cattle prods 24 hours a day, to get a click or a reaction, and scare us into sitting through an advertisement. The result of this has left us a quivering mass of uncertainty, retreating into our own little escapist fantasies and pleasures.

Brave New World, indeed.

So what label to you like using for the predicted future...totalitarian, authoritarianism, soft despotism, etc. etc. ?

I think we're already in a form of soft despotism, and I expect it to continue for the time being. Eventually, the absurd manipulations of the Fed and banksters will implode our economy, and we'll evolve into authoritarian/totalitarianism.

The iron fist will be brought to bear, for 'safety and order', and the world will tremble as the Earth Police become more unstable and aggressive. At that point, humanity's future is completely unknown.