Race, Sex, Law: A nation of snoops and voyeurs who value their opinion over others' rights

omega minimo

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Thu Jul-23-09 12:25 AM
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Race, Sex, Law: A nation of snoops and voyeurs who value their opinion over others' rights

A nation of snoops and voyeurs who value their opinion over others' rights, is ripe for McCarthyism

Is that who we are?

Is that who we want to be?

The discussions over Professor Gates being arrested in his own home at Harvard are striking for the strength of opinion, much of it lacking any sense of the rights and laws that were violated. Aside from us not being there at the time, these presumptions about who should have done what are trumped by LAW.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6122436&mesg_id=6122436 (link to thread with OP permission)

The most mind bogglingly racist comments here are uninformed, not only in terms of understanding race relations; but also because they don't understand basic civil rights for ANYBODY, including themselves.

These discussions remind me of the eternal, incessant wrangling over womens' reproductive health and privacy, where people cannot separate their personal opinion from the civil and legal rights of others.

There was too little comprehension of our civil rights and ongoing, extreme crimes against the nation for enough people to demand that the previous criminal administration be investigated and impeached.

If you sit on jury duty, you learn right quick that no matter how many speeches the judge makes and how many times they narrow the pool, you are sitting in a room full of people, most of whom will base their decision on their personal point of view and experience, not the law and not the evidence.

In 1953, there was no TV and Internet wired 24/7/365. Now EVERYBODY'S an expert, a voyeur, an opinion machine with Google and Wikipedia to support whatever patchwork quilt of reality we can come up with. Civil rights? In an era where surveillance is everywhere and people actually say, "If you've got nothing to hide, you've got nothing to worry about." Absolutely clueless.

What about rights? What about law? What about society as a whole?

Students don't learn history or civics. Many people today don't understand that protecting others' rights is to protect our own. If their rights are violated and/or dismantled, so are ours. Some here may not agree with me, but they will fight for my right to say this, because they understand that concept.

We might expect the Republicons to be misinformed and making it all up as the go along with Faux News. We don't want to be a monolithic blob of dense matter, regurgitating talking points and Borg-ing across the mindscape.

We won't have the cats herded and consensus reached. However, can we contribute here to more informed opinions and less bandwidth wasted on offensive and ignorant comments that are irrelevant to the topic? We don't have to agree on everything but to ignore the basic legal premises of the topic under discussion is to understand nothing.

That's where the next Head Hatemonger will step in and sweep the nation up in the grip of nationalistic, xenophobic insanity.

Let's not make it easy for them.

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"Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety." - Benjamin Franklin (1706–90)

"The men who had hated (the book], and had not particularly loved Helvetius, flocked round him now. Voltaire forgave him all injuries, intentional or unintentional. 'What a fuss about an omelette!' he had exclaimed when he heard of the burning. How abominably unjust to persecute a man for such an airy trifle as that! 'I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it,' was his attitude now."

S. G. Tallentyre (pseudonym of Evelyn Beatrice Hall), referring to Voltaire. Often attributed to Voltaire.