Downlo

wilwheaton:

Glenn Greenwald:

The intent and effect of such abuse is that it renders those guaranteed freedoms meaningless. If a population becomes bullied or intimidated out of exercising rights offered on paper, those rights effectively cease to exist. Every time the citizenry watches peaceful protesters getting pepper-sprayed — or hears that an Occupy protester suffered brain damage and almost died after being shot in the skull with a rubber bullet — many become increasingly fearful of participating in this citizen movement, and also become fearful in general of exercising their rights in a way that is bothersome or threatening to those in power. That’s a natural response, and it’s exactly what the climate of fear imposed by all abusive police state actions is intended to achieve: to coerce citizens to “decide” on their own to be passive and compliant — to refrain from exercising their rights — out of fear of what will happen if they don’t.

The genius of this approach is how insidious its effects are: because the rights continue to be offered on paper, the citizenry continues to believe it is free. They believe that they are free to do everything they choose to do, because they have been “persuaded” — through fear and intimidation — to passively accept the status quo. As Rosa Luxemburg so perfectly put it: “Those who do not move, do not notice their chains.” Someone who sits at home and never protests or effectively challenges power factions will not realize that their rights of speech and assembly have been effectively eroded because they never seek to exercise those rights; it’s only when we see steadfast, courageous resistance from the likes of these UC-Davis students is this erosion of rights manifest.

landoflooniton:

pileofmonkeys:

I am going to lose my shit.

A) McDonald’s is not always hiring.

B) A part-time, no-benefits job is not going to help anyone climb out of financial ruin.

C) IT’S NOT ABOUT LAZINESS. THERE ARE NO JOBS.

I want to see these smug shits get laid off from their cushy long-time…

a)  just look and trust me, you’ll find something, somewhere

b) something is better than nothing. and if you show initiative and desire; you might actually go somewhere in the company you’re working in.

c) isn’t this called the Land of Opportunity for a reason?

I’m not going to call these people lazy; all the effort they’re putting in complaining, sitting down, and getting maced (sarcasm) shows they’ve got drive, and a desire to have more. But I checked and there’s plenty of Fortune 500 companies with room for advancement hiring across the country, why not try there?

I’m not even going to touch the first two responses, which are utter bullshit in a time of around 9% unemployment, the cost of living outstripping minimum wage, skyrocketing costs for healthcare and energy, and the continuing outsourcing and casualization of work.

Complacency and smugness I can sort of understand—some people just lack empathy and imagination. But the third point just made my jaw drop. How stupid can you get? North Korea is called the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, but we all know that the only accurate words in that name are “of Korea”. It seems landoflooniton never learned something that most of us figure out in elementary school.

(via circusofworldstruggle)