But if we really believe that, and we believe the nation will further slide in a fascist state then we probably shouldn't say _anything_ online or over the phone.
Who would have thought that Obama would bring back the Espionage Act? We used to imprison people for publicly supporting Communism and/or publicly denouncing wars, and the courts upheld it. The Overton Window makes people really complacent in a pretty rapidly changing world, and the civil liberties regressions by Bush that are being institutionalized and explicitly legalized by Obama could give a future Santorum (or his ilk's) administration a bunch of scary options.
In the future, we may regret having had conversations like this on the internet or over the phone. I'm taking that risk.
edit: sentence fragment
edit - relevant: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4259441
We need to encourage people to speak their mind. Can everyone be an enemy of the state? There is strength and anonymity in many voices, many who would not speak, do.
I suppose they could automate the persecution of dissidents by denying them services or charging them more taxes. That way there wouldn't be a labor shortage for actually carrying out persecution.
Can you cite people being jailed for supporting Communism or denouncing wars under Obama.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Schenck_v._United_States
http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2012/02/27/is_the_obama_...
liberals politicians increase police power, conservative politicians increase social spending. their bases let them get away with it because they're "on their side", and their opposition let them get away with it because it's what they wanted anyway.
also note that the leadership in doing this came from Lincoln and Wilson....