Hacker News Reader

Comment by uwuemu | Hacker News Reader

Good. The government should be afraid of the people 100% of the time. Because when the people are afraid of the government, that's called tyranny. Also, it would do a lot of good for the politicians to be afraid a little, just to remind them that they're SERVANTS not RULERS and that they provide a service not to the government, but to the public.

View on HN

Good? Isn't that why we have frequent, regular elections? Or is it so far gone that the whole thing needs to be replaced... with some_one_ outside the "system"? Imo discarding democratic process and violently overthrowing an elected gov't is the fastest way TO tyranny.

The Founders, through the Declaration of Independence[1], explicitly answer your question:

> But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.

Your argument assumes that the people have discarded democratic processes, but this is not guaranteed to be the case; in fact, nearly every time this happens, it's a corrupt government fixing elections. The definition of "elected" is not as pure as your statement implies.

[1] https://www.archives.gov/founding-docs/declaration-transcrip...

You know what happens when the government is afraid of it's people? You get police with military gear and efficient mass surveillance.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com