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Comment by mpyne | Hacker News Reader

Do people fear increase in government power because it's actually bad for them, or because they've been told that government is bad in general?

I've been beginning to think it's not only the TSA types who employ the "state of fear" philosophy to drum up support for their cause.

In any case drones aren't even a tenth as destructive as helicopters. I don't even care what rule people pick at this point but it would really help my own blood pressure if we could at least just choose to be consistent for once.

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Why don't you ask an adult black male about the ever increasing power of the government and whether or not he should be afraid:

According to the US Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS) non-Hispanic blacks accounted for 39.4% of the total prison and jail population in 2009.[43][not in citation given] According to the 2010 census of the US Census Bureau blacks (including Hispanic blacks) comprised 13.6% of the US population.[44][45][46]

Or the fact that 1 in 10 people in the U.S. are currently incarcerated in the prison system.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Incarceration_in_the_United_St... http://www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2012/03/13/...

Can I ask that same adult black male whether they'd want to be alive in America in 1963, 1943, 1893, and 1863?

It's true though, that stupid gub'mint is getting so intrusive. Why, I'll bet pretty soon they'll be putting up propaganda posters telling us to save animal fats from our dinner, or actually (gasp!) rationing food like we were a bunch of Commies!

"Can I ask that same adult black male whether they'd want to be alive in America in 1963, 1943, 1893, and 1863?"

Do you honestly think this is valid reasoning? "You might be in prison for a victimless crime, but at least you're not a slave"?

The reasoning is based on your own description of the "increasing power of government" being the problem. I was pointing out that the opposite trend is in many ways what's actually going on.

That's either because government is not the major factor in the oppression of black males, or because government isn't strong enough.

That's no justification for government abuses where they occur, but I was never claiming that was OK.

How about asking the adult black male whether it is legal for the army to fire on enemy soldiers during a war, the question which is the subject of this discussion. Let's stay on topic.

Actually it's more like whether it is legal for the army to fire on enemy sympathizers.

The incarceration rates (disregarding racial issues for now) aren't only to blame on the government, but iirc mainly on the privatization of the prison business; there was a huge spike in incarceration rates and length of prison terms when that came about in the 90's (I believe), good graph about that out there somewhere.

While those numbers are distressing, one has to ask if government is their biggest threat. More black males are killed by other black males yearly than the entirety of what the KKK did.

Go look at Chicago for example, it may actually be safer to be in jail. I am not sure which statistic is actually worse.

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