Death Magnificent
I don't like that. The government can do anything it wants to do, and we are compelled to follow by threat of force.
I suppose if we were living in a dictatorship that might be true, though dictatorships tend to have a fairly short shelf life. You do realize we have the whole Madisonian checks and balances thing, right? The federal government is made up of people, has limited and enumerated powers, et cetera, et cetera. The U.S. government is the oldest modern government system, and has lasted so long specifically because it is relatively inoffensive. The fear you are expressing isn't really grounded in reality.
Death Magnificent
Interesting. They wouldn't let it happen twice, though.
Who is they and what won't they let happen? We're talking about a legal decision. People have a right to self-defense against unlawful police violence.
Of course, it has to be unlawful. If they have a warrant, announce themselves, et cetera, you're really better off surrendering and fighting the thing in courts.
Death Magnificent
I have so many grievances that listing them is too much goddamn work. I don't like how my government has been operating since its origination, so I'd like it replaced.
So, basically you just hate America, for unspecified reasons.
How very reasonable of you.
Death Magnificent
Ah, but wasn't it only for white men at first? I just like the idea of rights, and of not letting people ******** with them, so I suppose I'm really just inspired by that.
Indeed it was. But ******** with people's rights is exactly what has allowed for it to not just be white men. We had to remove the right to own slaves so that blacks could have their own rights. We had to dilute the voting rights of white men to extend the franchise to everybody. We had to limit the rights of property and business owners to stamp out segregation and discrimination and ensure equal protection of all people. For every harm, you either have a right to be free of that harm, to seek recompense or an injunction against such behavior, or others essentially have a right to harm you.
Death Magnificent
Some people tell those who're complaining about rights not yet recognised that they're entitled. They might have a point in that rights are not simply handed out just like that. There has to be unstoppable unrest.
Not really. The modern privacy right exists because Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis (later Justice Brandeis) wrote an influential scholarly article. Frankly, a lot of what we think of as rights come from legal and policy decisions from people just thinking out a problem and deciding to set down a rule.