As a country, it would appear that we lost our minds in the wake of 9/11.
Widespread government surveillance. Armed drones. Massive bills passing through Congress without being completely read. Amazingly intrusive security at airports, now filtering down to train and bus stations. Indefinite suspension of prisoners of war.
Yes, we have gone astray. For those of you old enough, could you imagine such things happening in the 70s, 80s or even the 90s?
Well, I live in Brazil, you never went astray after 9/11, you just became more obvious in your obviously oppressive ways against anyone that stands in the way of profit.
Everything that happened so far was very predictable...
By the way, when 9/11 happened, although obviously people were upset with the amount of life loss, many people here also became very happy because finally someone had the balls to drive the point home on US that they cannot keep screwing around and expect no punishment.
When the US started to irritate lots of countries because of Snowden, many people here were wishing the offended countries were strong enough to actually hit back (instead of just complaining on the UN assembly and whatnot)
> Massive bills passing through Congress without being completely read.
I expect that to be the norm in the 70s, 80s, and 90s as it is the norm today and will continue to be in the future, for the same reasons.
I imagine armed drones coming into use essentially as fast as they're developed; I don't believe any past government would have abstained.
I'm with you on the widespread government surveillance, absurd "security" at airports and train and bus stations, and indefinite suspension, though to be fair, I'm not really old enough to have much of an opinion on what things were like (except for airports... truly, these are the end times :( )
"I expect that to be the norm in the 70s, 80s, and 90s as it is the norm today and will continue to be in the future, for the same reasons."
Well, I think it's safe to assume that we've always had some amount of idiots in Congress: individuals whose lack of deep intellect and substantive accomplishments in life were offset by their ability to charm others. It seems reasonable that there have been many, many votes in the Senate and House in which the full language of the bills hasn't been read by the people doing the voting.
That said, I don't know if bills as massive as the Patriot Act, TARP bailout, or ACA are just "business as usual" for Congress. If you consider the sheer amount of lobbying that takes place today, along with the ease of cutting-and-pasting huge blocks of text into a document and the level of apathy the general public has these days towards all things political, I bet these bills couldn't have existed in decades past.
I think in the past, the corruption took place one small-to-moderate-sized bill at a time, with regular frequency. Now, it's a feeding frenzy that is shoved through all at once in the hope that nobody reads the fine print.
Widespread government surveillance. Armed drones. Massive bills passing through Congress without being completely read. Amazingly intrusive security at airports, now filtering down to train and bus stations. Indefinite suspension of prisoners of war.
Yes, we have gone astray. For those of you old enough, could you imagine such things happening in the 70s, 80s or even the 90s?