or “1984” Arrives
He said:
….And the most obvious reason that he is right is that a revolution cannot be organized on-line, for chrissake.
It’s impossible for the obvious reason… surveillance. You can’t organize revolution, for fuck’s sake, in a place monitored by the opposition. It doesn’t make sense and it’s not happening.
To which I replied, in part:
A surveilled society and a brutalized society is one that cannot force change, radical or otherwise.
We are on a fuckedly slippery slope!
This has been building for days, and I have to speak my mind. Now.
We have had many heated discussions here (here on Left Wing Blogs, particularly My Left Wing, lost in crosspost reference,) as of late about Andrew Meyer. A few have spent days discussing his “assholicness” as though that was relevant.
My question is this. Are YOU an asshole? Does anyone think YOU are an asshole? Is there a fucking asshole litmus test?
This event did not happen in a vacuum, it happened in the Neo-Con States of America, part of a larger trend.
I cannot say this more strongly!
He asked a question, Kerry said he would answer it, and they tasered him anyway. It was Kerry’s Q&A, and his choice was to answer those questions. The campus cops decided otherwise for him.
Civil disobedience always disrupts society. Thats its point. Is war protest a cause for water hoses and tear gas? For Kent State?
Utter fucking Bullshit.
Free Speech Zones. Tracking what Web Pages you frequent, and monitoring you based on what you read. Blocking Web Pages that they don’t like. Listening to your every phone call. Dragging you away for your T-Shirt, let alone your speech.
Again, Utter FUCKING Bullshit.
This is what our Free Speech has become. Any time Herr Bucszh speaks, people are cordoned off blocks away, unheard, unreported and totally ignored. They have taken away our voices, the American people will not be heard in this current regime; by design and decree. You cannot even wear clothing that protests this administration in their presence.
How do YOU spell FASCIST?
How do you spell COMPLIANT?
The worst part of the entire fiasco is that hundreds of people sat there and let it happen. It is indicative of the prevailing atmosphere of fear in which society now lives.
People should have been on their feet the moment the cops put their hands on this protester, not because they LIKED him, but because Americans should not stand for preemptive arrests, let alone brutality.
Bill O’Reilly is an asshole, has anyone tasered his ass yet?
I despise each and everything said on the Fox News Network, yet would defend their right to the death to be able to spew their filth.
So, kiddies, (facetious figure of speech, no insult meant) if you are thinking it is just fine that Americans can be tasered for speaking in a public Q&A forum, flash your Identifying Tattoo, wave your Chip through the Scanner and join the Lockstep! Thats the place this slippery slope leads.
Those who don’t do this:
End up like this:
But, thats cool, because those people are assholes, anyway.
CHECK. CHECK. CHECK. and FUCKING CHECK
or to mix the metaphor:
You will be Borg, you will be Assimilated.
Any Questions?
Tough, you ask, we’ll TASE your ass, even if you mutter them under your breath. We hear everything.
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Rock on. This is awesome!
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I felt bad I couldn’t add the gratuitous Star Trek pictures to the text. So here goes, you must enjoy them. Resistance is Futile.
and I lived through the 50s, the 60s and the 70s, well all of it. I have been astounded at the comments around the blogs that Andrew Meyer “asked for it” and “deserved” the taser jolts he received. Who are these people? Not only did the hundreds attending the Kerry speech not leap to their feet in immediate protest of the unnecessary show of force by the campus cops, they APPLAUDED. In that very moment, I knew we had lost something valuable; that the fascists are winning.
Beautiful essay, both in presentation and in content. Thank you Diane W.
I’m not sure police acted with the intent to strip Meyer of his civil rights as much as with a general disregard of those rights. Meyer may indeed be an asshole, but even assholes are protected by the Bill of Rights.
What really disturbs me is this almost seems to have become standard operating procedure. The introduction of “less than lethal” weapons to law enforcement has created an environment where police feel more comfortable using force against civilians who haven’t really done anything. If I were trying to create a fascist state, that would be the first thing I would do.
Even more disturbing, perhaps, is there seem to be some on the left who are willing to go along with this or, at the very least, tolerate it. Over a [dkos
http://www.dailykos….] one commenter even seemed to lament that law enforcement was not yet equipped with microwave weapons.
The media is complicit. Your patriotism and/or sanity is questioned if you so much as question or disagree. To speak out against invasion of Iraq was to be a traitor…it is still a litmus test for patriotism but now the focus has been changed to a support of MoveOn.org’s Betrayus ad. MoveOn did NOT call Gen Petraeus Betrayus yet all the talking points act like they did. Just like Kerry’s insult to the troops…it did not happen, but the Big Lie is told over and over so that people who did NOT READ the ad think that what is being said is true. The same with Illegal Immigrants…a world-wide problem…but America seems to have just discovered it. It is on EVERYONE’S mind now and it is a position that either you are against Illegals or you are for amnesty! And the Freedom Watch ads which say that Congress is talking about surrender.
It is NOT just thought control, it is deliberate lying about something and painting it in stark black and white so that you are either with us or against us!
for this diary. My family, 32 members having a family reunion at a campground in a National forest, were recently terrorized and evicted by a sheriff deputy simply for speaking. My son was arrested, my husband detained for two hours and my 15 year old grandson held hostage until we had left the campground at 1 AM in the morning. Sixteen of our group were children. I still cannot even think or talk about this incident without becoming totally enraged. A few of the adults have written letters condemning the actions of the officer and cited their ‘right’ to speak. I can only hope this incident, at this point, is a wake up call to the members of my family who are ‘sleeping’.
I suppose I might as well post it here, as well. Why not?
.
.
The US is on the road to fascism.
The 4th amendment guarantee of freedom from “unreasonable searches and seizures” is no longer operative.
Habeaus was undermined by the Military Commissions Act of 2006.
We attack countries that have done us no harm.
We fetishize the military.
We torture.
So, when I read something like OPOL’s diary on docudharma… or when I read something like this diary, I nod my head.
BUT a recognition of this leads to the question, “what can we do”?
I asked OPOL essentially the same question that I’ve been asking Gilroy.
If the US is becoming a fascist state (or if it is already a fascist state) and if the electoral system is broken beyond repair and if you therefore consider yourself a radical revolutionary, what kind of a revolution would you like to see unfold?
That’s part of my question.
If the system is so fucked up, lock, stock, and barrel, then what should we replace it with? It’s a question that must be asked and answered.
I, for one, believe in the Constitution. So if people start talking about revolution and bringing about changes to the root of the system, I wonder what they would replace the Constitution with?
I also wonder how any possible revolution can be organized in a surveillance state. We are living in a surveillance state. I can go on google and look directly into my buddies’ window on 19th and Geary. And if I can do that on google, surely the government can get a much closer look, eh?
And for those who have been blabbering about CIA infiltration of the blogs… you’re right! Of course the blogs are surveilled and probably infiltrated.
And that means that revolutionary organizing on-line cannot happen. And is not happening.
So, no, I am not a radical revolutionary. OPOL claims to be. Gilroy, essentially, claims to be.
But no one is offering viable alternatives beyond the ballot box.
I say, fix the fucking system. Reform it. Electoral reform and campaign finance reform.
And the only way that can happen is through the long, slow process of electing more and more liberals and progressives.
The conservative movement has peaked and is now in decline. We can take advantage of that situation to elect liberal politicians and we can pressure those politicians to do what is right. End the war. Restore the Constitution. Enact universal health care. Regulate polluting industries… and on and on and on.
But for those of you who are impatient with electoral possibilities, I ask you, what is the alternative?
What the fuck is it?