As we study our descent into hell

[Panaconda]

we are told by some...

but don't, don't use one regime because we are not even close!

In this case it is the Nazis, who are so outside the realm of history that we should not do that.

The logic-

Well they killed 13 million people in the concentration camp system, give or take two million. I am just using the accepted number.

So what regimes can we use?

In that case Saddam's Iraq? Nope, or we might accidentally validate the GOP propaganda that the place under Saddam was terrible... never mind that it was... even if we managed to help it go to an even darker night.

Hmm El Salvador? Nicaragua? Nope, they were minor events and our hands were bloody there as well...

Chile: The same jerk of the knee reaction we see about Germany you will see with Chile, especially among right wingers in this country (and I may add some of its best special forces and commandos now work for BlackWater USA...)

Hmm how about Red China, oh wait, most folks don't know a thing about it and it is foreign, I tell you...

So if you look for patterns and you use the ones that people are familiar then you get knee jerk reactions.

So where exactly are we?

We are living in a society where fear is quite pervasive...

Where the IRS has been used to harass people the same way it was done in 1972...

Where we have a chain of secret and not so secret prisons...

Where we have torture accepted in law...

Where we have surveillance of the population...

Where we have random detainment and release...

and on, and on and on...

But don't let this new reality hit you.

We are free... we like to tell ourselves, since we can post here... with no fear...

We are free, since we can go to work on Monday morning and not worry about it...

We are free... since it has not affected us...

In the meantime we have increasing measures closing our borders-sealed in perhaps?

And a method that has been used by all the governments I described above...

Don't pay attention to the man behind the curtain...

You are free and you should not concern yourself...

After all, since you have done nothing, you've got nothing to fear RIGHT?

[BeFree]

1. Good message for the freeps

Here it is old news. We pretty much grok that we are on a hell bound train.

Our problem is that too many neo-cons are fueling the train. How we take away their power is the question of our lifetime.

[Cal33]

4. "How we take away their power is the question of our lifetime."

Do everything we can to beat them at the polls, is the most direct way.
On a long-term basis, we could be more active in the media and broadcast
all their deliberate falsehoods as such, pointing out what the truth is.
(I must say the Neocons are way ahead of us in use of the media to their
advantage).

[stray cat]

2. Maybe you can trade citizenship - I know plenty who prefer your version of hell

You concerns are valid - but most in the western world are spoiled and have never experienced anything close to hell

[MineralMan]

3. Who is it that you think is not doing anything?

Who is it that you think is complacent?

[Panaconda]

7. Most all of us

I certainly don't see any mass movements of any significance. Maybe there are some things happening that you could point out.

I don't consider e-mails, petitions and the like as significant actions. Voting in the current orchestrated elections means next to nothing as well.

[Autumn]

5. K/R # 5

We call and write our elected officials and it seems they do what they want. They have to be intelligent enough to see where we are headed, I am beginning to think they don't care.

[chat_noir]

6. 828 shirt

[BeHereNow]

8. Oh, you excite me with one particular observation...

"Sealed in..."

Not many people have comprehended that one yet.

Welcome to DU!

BHN

[BeHereNow]

9. K&R btw... n/t

bhn