Is It "Just Me," or Are We STILL in a 3T?

[JasonBlack]

(02-14-2022, 10:53 AM)David Horn Wrote:

(02-14-2022, 12:50 AM)JasonBlack Wrote:

(02-13-2022, 10:36 AM)David Horn Wrote: I don't see anything even vaguely similar to your item 3.  Government reach has been declining for decades due primarily to a well thought-out campaign against anything that impedes the full exercise of private power.  In short, the government has been neutered, and nothing gets resolved as long as that continues.

You mean like vaccine passports, forced shut downs, police arresting people because they had gatherings in their own homes of over 10 people? It's true, most of this has been on the state rather than federal level, but the extension of government powers into said domains hasn't exactly been subtle. Once we get out of the country, it gets even worse. France has gone police state and Australia has gone straight up Orwellian (forcing people to verify their location with face pics at random intervals, armed police patrolling residential neighborhood streets, helicopters being sent out to find people).

Vaccine Passports have happened outside the US, but only a very few states have attempted anything similar.  I personally favor that approach, but its water under the bridge at this point.  Forcing behavior on the unwilling is part of what government does.  Sorry, you can't just rob this store -- you're getting arrested.  Vaccinating your children before they attend school is another example, and one followed everywhere for a long time.  These are fully rational responses to irrational provocations.  The blind freedom to do as one pleases only works when those freedoms are self-regulated.  We're way past that now.

Comparing mandates not to rob people to mandates to close down your business because of lockdowns is an absurd false equivalence. Personally I'm not concerned about most of the mask stuff (you just...put on a mask and do what you were doing anyway), but the forced closure of business (except corporations....) and frequent use of surveillance by governments across the world....no. The Constitution does not have exception clauses for crises, and this is for good reason, because those are precisely the times it's needed most (for example, the Bill of Rights in particular was created largely to protect unpopular people, such as those with controversial views, potential criminals, people who challenge government actions, etc).