The Police State and Conservatives

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   Sooner28posted 11 years ago

   Conservatives often try to portray opponents of the surveillance state as hippies who just want to smoke pot all day.  This is a psychological mechanism to avoid facing the fact that there are a wide variety of groups who oppose the police state, one of which is the libertarian, who strongly believes in free-markets.
   
   Three libertarian websites I like to visit: Lewrockwell.com, fff.org, and reason.com  All of these libertarian sites are consistently AGAINST the police state, and they cannot be smeared as lazy hippies.  Here's an example- http://lewrockwell.com/dilorenzo/dilorenzo253.html
   
   And another- http://fff.org/explore-freedom/article/ … te-part-1/
   
   I'm not a libertarian myself, but I can respect good arguments, and libertarians are some of the best critics of the police state.  So, my plea to conservatives is to open your minds.

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2. 86

   Zelkiiroposted 11 years ago

   We will never be safe until there is a camera in every teenage girl's bathro--er, I mean every American family's bathroom!

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3. 67

   innersmiffposted 11 years ago

   Oh, don't worry, libertarians are not exempt from conservative stereotyping. We're all pot-smoking, anti-Semitic, closet pinko-commies who can't wait to marry someone of the same sex and then have intercourse with them, don't you know?
   
   This is very accurate:
   
   

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4. 67

   innersmiffposted 11 years ago

   If that's too small to read:
   
   LIBERTARIANS:
   The right think we're pot-smoking hippies
   The left think we're shills for the fat-cat robber barons
   The media think we're an armed and dangerous mob ready to kill kittens
   Our friends think we're the tin-foil hat brigade
   We think we're Thomas Jefferson
   We're actually a bunch of guys and girls face-palming at statist idiots on the internet

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      Sooner28posted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Haha.  I've come to a deeper understanding, I think, of where you and other libertarians are coming from.  Libertarian arguments are more challenging to me than conservatives, because conservatives generally don't have a true commitment to the liberty they claim to uphold, and they are also FAR too deferential to authority figures in society when it comes to actions that frighten them (like terrorists and criminals).  They don't stand up for miranda rights, a fair trial, or against imperialism.  The attitude seems to be: Public Executions!
      
      The average supporter of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan was a conservative chanting USA, USA, USA, and claiming anyone who opposed the wars was a traitor and hated the United States.  Not that there weren't liberals who did that also, but liberals generally don't come off as nationalist.

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         innersmiffposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         Conservative politics is a hive of contradictions, and this is not surprising considering their axiom "America is the greatest country in the world" forms the basis of every policy they advocate. I'm not sure, but I think they actually believe this. I would ask them: if the US is so great, why do you need to prove it by stamping on the faces of those at home and abroad?
         
         And this is not restricted to American conservatives. British conservatives are as nationalistic and pro-military as American ones, except they espouse it in a posh accent.

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            Sooner28posted 11 years agoin reply to this

            I don't get the nationalism.  Maybe it has something to do with tying one's identity with a nation.  That's more of a psychological question though.

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            Silverspeederposted 11 years agoin reply to this

            But of course British liberals will give away the rights of the majority and British socialist will give away your wealth ( great or small) to those who haven't earned it.

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   Lie Detectorposted 11 years ago

   Pretty sure you have Republicans and Democrats confused with conservatives.

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      Zelkiiroposted 11 years agoin reply to this

      Fill in the blank: The Patriot Act, SOPA, PIPA, CISPA, and the revised NDAA were all penned by ________.
      A. The Beatles
      B. Conservatives
      C. Wilford Brimley
      D. The Moon

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         Lie Detectorposted 11 years agoin reply to this

         A.Republicans
         
         Based on work of Joe Biden.

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