Exodus fan jailed for posting lyrics on Facebook

Here's the problem with allowing behaviors like this: there is no logical way to limit "public safety." There isn't. Our sci-fi writers have made careers out of writing stories about robots given AI and charged with "protecting" us who decide that the only way to keep us safe is to either kill all of us or keep us locked individually in rooms so we can't do harm to each other. It may be a level of hyperbole, but it's not exactly inaccurate, is it?

Philosophers, doctors, psychiatrists, politicians, etc. have been trying to figure out why people go crazy, do bad things to good people and so on for centuries and we're not really any closer to an answer than we are now. You either give people freedom, which carries with it risk; or you take away all freedoms. The idea of rights becoming privileges may bear out in reality, but if we accept that as rote fact and "the way things should be," we should just drop our principles and, at that point, what the hell are we trying to preserve by avoiding these bad things anyway? A nation of people not allowed to do anything that might loosely offend or threaten? A nation of people who can't speak for fear someone may misconstrue what they've said?

I mean, even the comparison of yelling "fire" in a theater doesn't bear out here. Did the guy work in a school? Even as a janitor or something where his normal day-to-day habits might have made it a scary thing? Did he list his location as a local school when posting those lyrics? I mean, THOSE things would have justified a law enforcement reaction. THAT comes across as a tangible threat to a specific body. Sans those signifiers, it may have been stupid or in bad taste, but who was it directed at? If I post "I really want to punch someone," on Facebook, should I be arrested for making terroristic threats? It may be low class, but it's me venting my spleen - incidentally, a hell of a lot safer for everyone than me going out and decking someone because I had a bad day.

In any event, there's no defending detaining the guy for 8 days over this. No matter what someone's philosophical defense of police attention over this FB post, that's just sloppy police work. We live in the frickin' 21st Century. This guy's criminal record was available to the police who showed up at his house. The only justification for detaining someone that long is tangible evidence of a plot to harm others and NO evidence of any kind was mentioned. He was just held for over a week and then released without so much as an apology for the misunderstanding. That. Is. Wrong.

The Police State is HERE and it's not going away. Only gonna get worse. It's not that hard to verify the growing number of law enforcement jurisdictions nationwide, both metropolitan and rural that are equipped just as well if not better than the military conglomerates of a sovereign nation.

The folks that are on board with it being cool that individual rights are getting trampled on is even more scary than a whack job with a bomb at a school. Wanna know why ? Cause a whack job at a school is an actual threat. Tangible when compared to whatever the powers at be deem to be a threat and act on without due process. All these security measures will not stop whack jobs and it's cool if you feel all this makes you safer from them. What is gonna keep you safe from those whom you had presumed were there to serve and protect ? When they come and detain you for not what you have ACTUALLY done, but rather what a computer program assumes you may or may not do based on something you watched, typed, or said. Mileage may vary as to whether one believes what I am saying or not. Look around it's happening more and more, but hell it's all good cause everyone is "safer".

There's a really apt quote by Hunter S. Thompson (not the greatest role model, I'll admit) roughly to the effect of, "Is life so valuable that we should give up flirting with death in order to prolong it?"

There's a big fascination to NOT DYING rather that LIVING that fuels all of this goofy, soft "public safety" thinking that smacks of almost clinical obsession to me.

I can't help but feel like the general psyche of the American populace is best represented by this guy:

MetalGuy71 wrote:

James B. wrote:

The Police State is HERE and it's not going away.  Only gonna get worse.  It's not that hard to verify the growing number of law enforcement jurisdictions nationwide, both metropolitan and rural that are equipped just as well if not better than the military conglomerates of a sovereign nation.

The folks that are on board with it being cool that individual rights are getting trampled on is even more scary than a whack job with a bomb at a school.  Wanna know why ?    Cause a whack job at a school is an actual threat.   Tangible when compared to whatever the powers at be deem to be a threat and act on without due process.   All these security measures will not stop whack jobs and it's cool if you feel all this makes you safer from them.  What is gonna keep you safe from those whom you had presumed were there to serve and protect ?  When they come and detain you for not what you have ACTUALLY done, but rather what a computer program assumes you may or may not do based on something you watched, typed, or said.  Mileage may vary as to whether one believes what I am saying or not.   Look around it's happening more and more, but hell it's all good cause everyone is "safer".  

I think all this talk about a "police state" is silly and nothing but fear-mongering.

I'm not afraid of the police and have no reason to be, maybe i'm not totally paranoid about cops like you are because one happened to give me a very important lecture as a kid that really straightened me out. I was doing some really stupid shit and could've hurt someone or worse, and if i'd kept on that path then who knows where i'd be today were it not for that cop?  

So unlike most people on here, I don't feel the need to demonize all cops as being evil.

I have no idea what on earth you're talking about with a program.

I fail to see how being concerned about that guy is more "scary" then a wackjob, I don't really see that as "trampling" on his rights.

How on earth do you know that security measures won't stop wackjobs? You have zero proof of that.

The fascists on this board, ready to kiss anyone's ass with a badge or other types of authority figures are the true threats to our nation's liberty.

Short-Fuse wrote:

The fascists on this board, ready to kiss anyone's ass with a badge or other types of authority figures are the true threats to our nation's liberty.

Right, i'm a "fascist" just because i'm not stereotyping every single cop as being EEEEEEVIL.

If anyone's a "true threat" it's you, sounds like you're kissing the ass of the Tea Party.

Vexer6 wrote:

Short-Fuse wrote:

The fascists on this board, ready to kiss anyone's ass with a badge or other types of authority figures are the true threats to our nation's liberty.

Right, i'm a "fascist" just because i'm not stereotyping every single cop as being EEEEEEVIL.  

If anyone's a "true threat" it's you, sounds like you're kissing the ass of the Tea Party.

Sorry, no political affiliation- just a desire to be left alone by the government and authority-lovers like yourself.

Short-Fuse wrote:

Vexer6 wrote:

Short-Fuse wrote:

The fascists on this board, ready to kiss anyone's ass with a badge or other types of authority figures are the true threats to our nation's liberty.

Right, i'm a "fascist" just because i'm not stereotyping every single cop as being EEEEEEVIL.  

If anyone's a "true threat" it's you, sounds like you're kissing the ass of the Tea Party.

Sorry, no political affiliation- just a desire to be left alone by the government and authority-lovers like yourself.

I prefer to be left alone by paranoid wackjobs like yourself who are convinced that EVERYONE is out to get them even though it's likely all in their head.

Also, I don't think you actually have a clue what the term "fascist" actually means, I think people throw that term around way too much without actually grasping the concept.

Ooooooookay, I think this thread has outlived its usefulness.