Hacker News Reader

Comment by jscipione | Hacker News Reader

The 4th Amendment right to privacy has been so badly violated by the US Federal Government and TSA that the Constitution is no longer valid - the contract is beyond broken, the US government has descended into absolute dictatorship and it is the duty of all Americans to “dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another.” “it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security.”

View on HN

While I wholeheartedly agree with where you're coming from (most rights listed in the Bill of Rights are being violated in some blatant manner), the problem is that vein of thought has now been claimed by an authoritarian movement idolizing an empty huckster who wears a diaper. Something similar happens to every good political critique - when it finally starts getting traction in the wider sphere, it's taken over by opportunists leading morons, and the whole thing just goes sideways.

I've reacted by becoming much more conservative, voting for deep state supporting candidates because at least they're the devil we know. I guess I'll just keep my head down politically and keep working on communications technology that might extricate us from the state gradually. Because replacing the state top-down with fascist madmen certainly isn't going to lead anywhere good.

>The 4th Amendment right to privacy has been so badly violated by the US Federal Government and TSA that the Constitution is no longer valid

Without the constitution, would you be holding all the cards or would the Army?

We have a Constitutional Convention, enact a new Constitution and a new Capital, then release all the dirty secrets from the old (current) government similar to how documents were released in the early 1990’s when the Soviet Union fell apart.

The armed services, being part of the old government would lose their authority along with the rest.

This assumes a peaceful transition of power, if violence is used instead all bets are off.

> This assumes a peaceful transition of power, if violence is used instead all bets are off.

You expect the US government to simply step down?

Civil disobedience is a serious threat to the power of the US government. 19 states out of 34 states have already committed to the convention of states. The US Federal government knows all too well how to deal with violence but they don’t know how to handle peaceful mass non-compliance.

> Civil disobedience is a serious threat to the power of the US government.

Potentially if it could be organized.

> 19 states out of 34 states have already committed to the convention of states.

This is a non-sequitur and has nothing to do with civil disobedience nor the dissolution of the federal govt.

> The US Federal government knows all too well how to deal with violence but they don’t know how to handle peaceful mass non-compliance.

I think a lot of people would dispute this. The standard ways to deal with peaceful mass non-compliance have been known by western governments forever:

1. Split the population into factions with extremes who won't remain peaceful.

if that fails the:

2. Insert agents-provocateur into the peaceful group to spur violence.

Either way the formula is the same - turn an non-violent protest into a violent one and then deal with it as such.

I suppose that there are some good examples of Government inserting agitators recently like the Canadian truckers protest in Ottawa and the Jan 6th protest in Washington DC. However, the government was not entirely successful at destroying these resistance movements and they occurred during a time of relative economic prosperity. Economic forces will have a major impact on the willingness for the population to resist en masse so it may simply be a matter of timing.

> Economic forces will have a major impact on the willingness for the population to resist en masse so it may simply be a matter of timing.

If that happens, there is no reason at all to imagine there will be unified non-violent protest leading to the peaceful stepping down of the US government in favor of something less oppressive.

You only have to look at what has happened in other countries where the populous has been impoverished.

Remember the Alien and Sedition Acts?

I remember them being controversial at the time and expiring without opposition.

> I remember them being controversial at the time and expiring without opposition.

Controversial, sure, but the other part is only half right.

The “Alien and Sedition Acts” consisted of four separate acts passed in 1798, by their popular names:

1. The “Alien Friends Act” had a two year term and expired.

2. The “Sedition Act” had a two year term and expired.

3. The “Naturalization Act” had no fixed term but was repealed and replaced in 1802.

4. The “Alien Enemies Act” had no fixed term, and remains in force with some amendments.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com