The ever prescient @kixes:
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@johnzajac @skinnylatte @kixes i say this with the intent to educate but i think you may have massive tunnel vision, or otherwise massively missed the point some other way, if you think this sounds like US.
soft authoritarianism is everywhere but even after the current administration have taken over there is still loads more freedom of speech and dissent than what is described in the article
I mean, are you aware of the Cop City prosecutions? "Bought a sandwich" is apparently a RICO violation.
Prairieland?
The hundreds of felony prosecutions under Biden and Trump for Gaza protesters whose crimes included "grafitti" and "setting up a tent"?
The tendency of police to simply shoot Black people they don't like the look of?
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I mean, are you aware of the Cop City prosecutions? "Bought a sandwich" is apparently a RICO violation.
Prairieland?
The hundreds of felony prosecutions under Biden and Trump for Gaza protesters whose crimes included "grafitti" and "setting up a tent"?
The tendency of police to simply shoot Black people they don't like the look of?
1/
@johnzajac @skinnylatte @kixes i am not a US citizen. even with the threat of illegal deportations i *still* have more freedom of speech and due process than my home country indonesia, which *still* have more freedom of speech and due process than singapore
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I mean, are you aware of the Cop City prosecutions? "Bought a sandwich" is apparently a RICO violation.
Prairieland?
The hundreds of felony prosecutions under Biden and Trump for Gaza protesters whose crimes included "grafitti" and "setting up a tent"?
The tendency of police to simply shoot Black people they don't like the look of?
1/
"Technically, protests aren’t criminalized in Singapore. You just have to apply for a police permit fourteen working days in advance, even if you’re just one person holding a placard."
Sounds familiar. "Your time has elapsed and you must now disperse" is a common phrase used by US police to excuse the sudden shooting and gassing of peaceful protesters.
"They were told to disperse" is usually the excuse given when they blind people or cause TBIs or lung injury.
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R relay@relay.infosec.exchange shared this topicR relay@relay.mycrowd.ca shared this topic
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@johnzajac @skinnylatte @kixes i am not a US citizen. even with the threat of illegal deportations i *still* have more freedom of speech and due process than my home country indonesia, which *still* have more freedom of speech and due process than singapore
@johnzajac @skinnylatte @kixes first amendment rights is rapidly degrading in the US and it is scary for all of us, and we must fight back as hard as we can. but it is unproductive to present it as worse than it is in a global context.
i have always thought of this tendency as another form of american exceptionalism. america is best at being the best, but america is always best at being the worst too (e.g., people's tendency to say "we're now basically a third world country" in response to worsening conditions in the US. no we're not)
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@johnzajac @skinnylatte @kixes i am not a US citizen. even with the threat of illegal deportations i *still* have more freedom of speech and due process than my home country indonesia, which *still* have more freedom of speech and due process than singapore
"Due process" is violated routinely in the US; it's just become fashionable to be outraged by it because Trump isn't interested in hiding his contempt for the law.
Due process includes a speedy trial, but in the US avg time in jail waiting for court is 6 months. 400k people are currently incarcerated but innocent. Some have been incarcerated for *years*.
The US system is aspirational, but not nearly as fair or just as you seem to think.
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The ever prescient @kixes:
“Nobody ever told me that the hardest part of living under authoritarianism—especially Singapore’s insidious, “soft” version that seems to be becoming attractive to other governments around the world—is not what they do to you, but what they make you do to yourself and to the people around you”
No Free Labor for Authoritarians: Censorship and Dissent in Singapore - Adi Magazine
Two thoughts ran through my mind as I was escorted to the women’s toilets at the police station so the investigators could confiscate the T-shirt I was
Adi Magazine (adimagazine.com)
@skinnylatte @kixes “We posed for photos together, grinning at the camera, tongue-in-cheek and defiant. And even though I knew the police could open yet another investigation, at that moment, surrounded by my friends, I was not afraid.”
A hero
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"Due process" is violated routinely in the US; it's just become fashionable to be outraged by it because Trump isn't interested in hiding his contempt for the law.
Due process includes a speedy trial, but in the US avg time in jail waiting for court is 6 months. 400k people are currently incarcerated but innocent. Some have been incarcerated for *years*.
The US system is aspirational, but not nearly as fair or just as you seem to think.
@johnzajac @skinnylatte @kixes where did i seem to think that the US system is fair or just?
well, ultimately i intend to educate on what it is like outside the US, and on having a non-US-centric perspective. i don't intend to argue or get mansplained.
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@johnzajac @skinnylatte @kixes where did i seem to think that the US system is fair or just?
well, ultimately i intend to educate on what it is like outside the US, and on having a non-US-centric perspective. i don't intend to argue or get mansplained.
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R relay@relay.publicsquare.global shared this topic
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@johnzajac @skinnylatte @kixes first amendment rights is rapidly degrading in the US and it is scary for all of us, and we must fight back as hard as we can. but it is unproductive to present it as worse than it is in a global context.
i have always thought of this tendency as another form of american exceptionalism. america is best at being the best, but america is always best at being the worst too (e.g., people's tendency to say "we're now basically a third world country" in response to worsening conditions in the US. no we're not)
Imperial citizens who call the US a third-world nation don't understand what a third-world nation is or why they were labeled as such.
But the US is, for people without the means to access our systems effectively, or who are part of a disfavored minority, a *terrible* place to live. Even the upper-middle class has trouble affording any substantial healthcare at all.
You'll note I'm not telling you about Indonesia; I'm talking about the United States.
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Imperial citizens who call the US a third-world nation don't understand what a third-world nation is or why they were labeled as such.
But the US is, for people without the means to access our systems effectively, or who are part of a disfavored minority, a *terrible* place to live. Even the upper-middle class has trouble affording any substantial healthcare at all.
You'll note I'm not telling you about Indonesia; I'm talking about the United States.
@johnzajac @skinnylatte @kixes i live here. with objectively less rights and privileges than you do. i don't know why you feel the need to mansplain the US to me.
