Comments on: Is the US really a police state? http://libertarianstandard.com/2012/07/02/is-the-us-really-a-police-state/ Property - Prosperity - Peace Mon, 20 May 2013 06:54:19 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.5.1 By: Tim Swansonhttp://libertarianstandard.com/2012/07/02/is-the-us-really-a-police-state/#comment-2810 Tim Swanson Sat, 15 Sep 2012 01:53:53 +0000 http://libertarianstandard.com/?p=11309#comment-2810 Geoih and Tom, thanks for the comments. I address some of what you mention in this subsequent post: http://libertarianstandard.com/2012/07/28/myth-274-china-must-be-freer-because-the-us-is-a-super-serious-real-police-state/

]]> By: Tom Blantonhttp://libertarianstandard.com/2012/07/02/is-the-us-really-a-police-state/#comment-2737 Tom Blanton Tue, 03 Jul 2012 23:18:02 +0000 http://libertarianstandard.com/?p=11309#comment-2737 This article falls short of answering the question posed and seems to convey the sentiment that if you can criticize the government without being punished, then America can’t be a police state. In reality, talk is cheap. It occurs to me that our masters don’t really care what we say as long as we pay tribute. Work hard, pay your taxes, and participate in the system by voting for one of the two factions of the statist cult. There are free speech zones and blogs for you to vent, but rest assured, only allowable criticism will be heard on TV and radio, or in major newspapers. You can protest all you want with proper permits for limited durations under police supervision.

It doesn’t follow that the anecdotal remarks e-mailed to Lew Rockwell are “simply not true” because of a crackdown on illegal immigrants in China. It also doesn’t follow that Lew Rockwell is or isn’t a libertarian based on what someone e-mails him.

Crackdowns on illegal immigrants take place in America, as do the arrest of dissidents. The recent arrest of the NATO 3 comes to mind. Terror plots planned by the FBI to entrap half-wits have occurred frequently. America’s high rate of incarceration should also figure into the equation of whether America is a police state. Vans that scan pedestrians and a NSA that screens vast numbers of e-mails and phone calls exist in America. How does this compare with China? Databases on American citizens have eroded our privacy and SWAT teams invade homes to serve warrants for victimless crimes.

I suppose if you believe that America is not an empire and has a free market system with honest elections, you probably believe that America is not a police state. Certainly, Obama is not as bad as Stalin and Bush was no Adolph Hitler. This doesn’t exactly make them great guys. I think America is an empire. No, it’s not exactly like the Roman or British empires. I don’t think a free market system exists in America. Yet, it isn’t exactly like Cuba. Is it a police state? Yes, in many ways. Perhaps it will look more like one after the local police become further militarized and there are 30,000 drones flying over America watching us. With 25% of the world’s prisoners in American jails and the growth of the prison-industrial complex where the corporate owners that operate prisons lobby for tougher and tougher laws, we may soon see what cannot be denied is a police state.

Never say it can’t happen here. If it hasn’t already happened, it is surely happening on many levels and it will continue to happen as long as it is politically incorrect among statists to say that America is becoming a police state, causing even “libertarians” to deny it so that no statist will be offended.

]]> By: geoihhttp://libertarianstandard.com/2012/07/02/is-the-us-really-a-police-state/#comment-2736 geoih Tue, 03 Jul 2012 12:09:10 +0000 http://libertarianstandard.com/?p=11309#comment-2736 Is China the benchmark? If history shows anything, it is that the path between liberty and tyranny is very short, very steep and very slippery. I think Mises said that he felt a good measure of a country’s economic freedom was if it had a stack market. I have to wonder if having a stock market, that is so under the control of the bureaucrats and cronies, is really a good measure of economic freedom.

Maybe there should be a better way to measure freedom than comparing to what most would consider isn’t.

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