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Terr_ | on: The UK's war on anonymity has come to America
> OK, but following this logic, shouldn't we disband the government altogether and have mafias rule us all?

Only if "following this logic" means "extrapolate to an unreasonable extreme." Compare:

1. "Just eat healthy food and you'll be healthy!"

2. "Yes, but [things are complex]"

3. "Following that logic, we should just eat trash."

spawarotti | parent
I am still curious: when is it acceptable to hope that something is actually going to work well enough when handed over to the government?
docjay | root | parent | next
The problem is that the government was handed an emotion and a mandate to eliminate it. You’ve declared a “war on jealousy” and demanded the government assemble the troops. That’s not handing them a well reasoned plan and “hoping they don’t mess it up”, you messed it up when you scribbled “no more addiction” on a protest sign.
CookieCrisp | root | parent
When the consequences of the government not abusing it isn’t devastating.
ElProlactin | root | parent | next
By that logic, countries like the US, UK, France, etc. shouldn't be allowed to have a standing military.
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b112 | root | parent
And yet, compared to every military in the past, compared to the fact that war was seen as a normal thing in the past, compared to how it used to be standard to rape and pillage in the past, and that was just expected and fine and normal, current modern militaries of the West are exceptionally disciplined, and their use by politicians doubly so.

Of course, that doesn't mean we can't do better and shouldn't.

But we do need to compare "How things have been for all of human history" to "How we do things now", and see that our modern democracies show immense restraint and a lack of malfeasance, compared to how they've been used in the past.

I feel that people view how the world is today, through such a restricted world view. Where the history of how things were, and the immense and great and incredible progress we've made, is thrown aside because "Oh bad thing happened!", and therefore "The entire West is completely corrupt and everything sucks and we should rip it all down because it's bad".

One only need take a tour around the rest of the world. To compare our militaries to those in non-democratic nations. To how those leaders act, in reality, compared to our leaders. Even the current US admin looks good, comparatively. And yes, I know that's saying a lot.

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