That's not stalking. Stalking requires you actually... stalk someone. Just saying that you know where he and his family operate could at best be considered assault.
Actually, according to the statute, it is. From the statute:
PL 120.45 Stalking in the Fourth Degree
Class B Misdemeanor
A person is guilty of stalking in the fourth degree when he or she intentionally, and for no legitimate purpose, engages in a course of conduct directed at a specific person, and knows or reasonably should know that such conduct;
(1) is likely to cause reasonable fear of material harm to the physical health, safety or property of such person, a family member, or an acquaintance; or
(2) causes material harm to the mental or emotional health of the victim by "following, telephoning or initiating communication or contact with such person," a family member, or an acquaintance,
and the actor was previously informed to cease that conduct; or
(3) is likely to cause the victim to reasonably fear that his or her employment, business or career is threatened by "appearing, telephoning or initiating communication or contact" at the victim's place of employment or business, and the actor was previously informed to cease that conduct.
[Emphasis Added]
Doing as the OP suggests would, almost certainly, "cause reasonable fear of material harm to the physical health, safety or property of such person, a family member, or an acquaintance"
Such a threat is implicit in the actions advocated by OP.
No, No: somebody should do a little research on this Ingrisano character and let him know that we know where his kids go to school and the route his wife takes to work (if no wife or kids, mom and dad would do, too).
Then smile.
Scum like this deserve no better
Stalking is a crime in New York State. The behavior you suggest clearly falls under NY State's Stalking law.
While it's unlikely you would end up in State PMITA prison (unless you have a previous conviction), you might well end up in NYC PMITA Riker's Island. Which could be a problem, unless you're into that kind of thing.
""UPS is not aware of any court orders from the NSA seeking to inspect technology-related shipments" [Emphasis Mine]
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a U.S. intelligence agency responsible for providing the United States government with encrypted communications (information assurance) and the reading of encrypted communications (signals intelligence) of other nations.
The NSA is not and AFAIK, does not contain within it, any Federal Tribunals.
As such, the NSA cannot issue a court order. One might assume that other mechanisms can be used to coerce both individuals and/or corporations to submit to the will of the NSA (including court orders from actual courts, such as the FISA court.
So, UPS' statement says exactly nothing WRT whether the NSA has coerced (or just asked) to intercept their packages. Just sayin'.
Willful ignorance of what the above person said is not a good thing. An open source software developer stands to (quite probably) make money for either himself or his friends directly from going to open source because government likes being supported. Thus pushing this into law as a legislator is a direct conflict of interest, and ethically questionable. This has nothing to do with indirect benefits, like you imply.
I'll quote the original poster, so you know what I'm referring to:
... He is part of an organization that may benefit from the decision, and should thereby recuse himself from the discussion. [Emphasis Added]
Since the summary and the attached link make only one assertion as to which "organization" this guy belongs, that is the NYC Council, I questioned the validity of his point. Unless there's some shadowy "Open Source Developer" organization that I've never heard about. I suppose it's possible that the Councilman is a member of some organized group of FOSS developers, but without a reference, the OP's statements are nothing but unsubstantiated mud-slinging.
This "Pet Cause" is actually a conflict of interest and is illegal. He is part of an organization that may benefit from the decision, and should thereby recuse himself from the discussion.
The City Council could benefit? I guess that any law that might improve the lives of NYC residents could benefit the members of the City Council. By your logic, City Council members should recuse themselves from all legislation unless it harms NYC, right?
I know it's the default in NYC (and NY in general), but I still wish some of these smarter guys would rebel and throw off the chains of the Party of Slavery. It forces me to question everything you do, even if it sounds interesting and benificial.
Yes, TCO is an important consideration WRT software/systems purchasing, as is the mix of administration and support personnel currently employed by the city. We should weigh all the costs *and* benefits of any solution implemented by NYC government. I suspect that in some cases, FOSS solutions will be better and/or more cost-effective than proprietary ones, and in other cases they will not.
So, rather than go on with political party smears that haven't been true since before the majority of NYC residents (median age 33.6 years) were born, why not make a useful suggestion?
We just got rid of the scumbags (Guiliani and Bloomberg) from the "Party of Lincoln" who ran this city for the benefit of the monied interests (and who used the police to harass and harm minority communities) for twenty years.
Let's give the current administration enough rope to hang itself and see how it does.
It is necessary for the functioning of the city that computer data owned by the city be permanently available to the city throughout its useful life. To guarantee the succession and permanence of public data, it is necessary that the city's accessibility to that data be independent of the goodwill of the city's computer system suppliers and the conditions imposed by these suppliers. It is in the public interest to ensure interoperability of computer systems through the use of software and products that promote open, platform-neutral standards. It is also in the public interest that the city be free, to the greatest extent possible, of conditions imposed by parties outside the city's control on how, and for how long, the city may use the software it has acquired. Finally, it is not in the public interest and it is a violation of the fundamental right to privacy for the city to use software that, in addition to its stated function, also transmits data to, or allows control and modification of its systems by, parties outside of the city's control.
I agree that we should use the right tool for the right job, but why should that exclude FOSS?
Just because you watched Contact on Netflix doesn't mean you have to invoke that.
Huh? I don't even use Netflix. Although I think it's sad that you, apparently, found out about such an important concept from a movie. I suggest paying attention in class, boy -- and I do emphasize the word 'boy'.
If the Drake equation is to be believed, shouldn't there also be an extremely large number of planets that have become uninhabitable due to nuclear war? Why aren't we looking for signs of nuclear wars on distant planets?
Given all the unknowns in the Drake Equation, it's more a mechanism for categorizing our ignorance than anything else.
why would any one enter conflict over a small planet
Maybe it's a convenient atmosphere for them. Maybe a large ocean can be converted into hydrogen quickly and you burn up the planet in the process. Maybe it's fun.
Any species capable of interstellar travel is going to be able to pull resources out of pure energy.
Well, that's what we mostly assume. Maybe they just scavenge stuff as they go.
They don't mine, or need our water. They don't care what we do, except maybe they observe us and snicker.
In all honesty, if we ever met truly alien life... we have no idea of what we would find, and what they would think of us.
They may look at us as a slave race, food source, a place to lay their eggs or any of a zillion things.
We can make educated guesses by making assumptions about them. But given the sheer number of unknowns, they may or may not have any meaning should it ever happen.
I think it's great to do thought experiments and play what if. But the reality is, at the end of the day, we can't definitely say any of that is actually fact.
So, when you say "don't", "won't", "can't" or "do", "will" and "can" -- you pretty much have to subsitute that for "well, maybe, hopefully at least, that's what my best guess tells me, and it sounds good, so I'm going with it".
Hell, for all you know our kind of planet is needed for the equivalent of the "three seashells" for wiping the arse of some interstellar slug, and it'll just eradicate us while taking a dump without even knowing (or caring) we're here.;-)
Yes, it is possible that several species of brain-sucking, evil aliens are even now battling it out beyond the orbit of Jupiter over who has the right to eat our sweet, tasty gray matter.
Yes, it is possible that the decadent Galactic Empire has completely run through the entire galaxy's supply of tater tots, except for the massive reserves here on Earth, so they're coming to enslave us so we can make tater tots for them for the next 10,000 years.
Yes, it's possible that beautiful female aliens need our men to propagate their species, having murdered all of their men after mating with them and we're next.
Yes, it's possible that aliens with gigantic penises are on their way to have non-consensual butt sex with every male on the planet.
Are these scenarios very likely? Not really. Are yours? No.
I'll explain and I'll use small words so you'll be sure to understand: Given the distances involved and the relative abundance of raw materials in our galaxy, it's hugely unlikely that any extra-solar intelligence would have the need, means or desire to come here and wreak havoc upon us.
I suggest you do the math (in your case, I imagine you'll need to learn the math first) as to the probabilities to see how ridiculous you sound. Have a nice day!
I'm an American who has lived mostly in the US, and most of the folks I know understand that freedom isn't necessarily safe.
Yeah, but the government and oligarch class has carefully divided them into two halves, and convinced most of them that the other half is trying to take their rights away. The plan is to keep them arguing over that, while letting the important issues go undiscussed.
Yes. I didn't realize that was a point of contention anywhere. I'd point out that the "...government and the oligarch class..." aren't really separate entities. The government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the oligarch class, they're not separate entities, IMHO./p
Re:Never used this keystroke
on
Goodbye, Ctrl-S
·
· Score: 1
Well, emacs isn't installed on systems by default and since I administer unix servers, knowing vi is much more valuable than knowing emacs.
And no need to flame. Use whatever works best for you. I use vi because it's on all the systems I manage, from Tru64 on Alphas to Solaris to HP-UX and yes to Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Slackware.
[John]
Hey. It's all in fun, John. And you'll get no argument from me. I do and have managed Unix (not just Linux, either -- Oh, for those SunOS 4.1 days...not!) systems of various flavors, and I can use vi (or ed, [shudder]) if I need to do so. However, emacs is what I cut my teeth on (it kicked ass over ED/EDT!) and I enormously prefer it to vi. All the same, I can't always install my editor of choice (my personal preferences don't always matter on production systems) and will use what's available.
Well, we have spent several centuries mining and purifying elements. I can think of some examples in our own world where invasions have happened to exploit technologically backward societies possession of mineral wealth.
Okay, let's assume that a space-faring civilization needed resources and had so exhausted the resources of their home solar system that they needed to exploit the resources of another solar system, then further assuming that our solar system was convenient to them, and further assuming that they had the capacity to exploit the resources in our solar system.
Given all of that, why would they come into a gravity well like the Earth's when they could get enormously more water and organic molecules from Kuiper Belt objects and enormously more metals/silicon/rocky elements from the asteroid belt than from here, without ever entering a gravity well of any consequence?
The best idea seems to be not a false flag operation but a false motive operation; the motive not being to compromise TrueCrypt but to sow distrust/disuse of TrueCrypt because it's too good and makes essentially unbreakable encryption of computers possible. Intelligence agencies must run into all the time, it's trivial, portable and very flexible to use.
Pushing users to another encryption scheme leaves data vulnerable, either through known weaknesses in other systems or compromises built into other products.
I can only assume that the only reason the developer(s) haven't spoken out is that they were pressured by the government somehow.
That seems to be a fairly reasonable explanation. Since whatever went down was purposeful (even if we don't know for sure what that purpose was) and took time and effort, it's reasonable to assume that someone is gaining from this. If we can answer the "who" question, then the "why" will likely become obvious, IMHO.
From confusion surrounding the future and efficacy of TrueCrypt?
It seems strange that random h4x0r elements would post such an odd screed rather than trumpeting their success at compromising TrueCrypt's site.
It could be some sort of false flag/ploy by the intelligence/industrial complex, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.
Potentially, it could be part of some targeted effort to access data encrypted with TrueCrypt by convincing some user(s) to move off of a secure platform so their data can be compromised. Presumably, this would need to be something important enough to expend significant resources to gain access to said data.
It's always a good bet to "follow the money."
Or, it could be a troll. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
in my experience english people in general are different than americans in general.
yes we are all people, but to dismiss cultural differences strikes me as unwise.
there are attitudes considered normal in england that are not in america and vice versa.
i do believe that the poilitics of fear (commie! terrorist!) has made the american population afraid and cowardly.
Cultural differences are real, true enough. At the same time, I believe it's a mistake to paint 315 million people with such a broad brush. However, Far be it for me to try to disabuse you of your world view. Cheers!
FTFY: The sad truth is the majority of Americans, at least the stereotype I apply to them, is...
THAT. Exactly that.
For about a year now, every time I hear grandiose statements of "The Truth Is..." from anybody, I replace that in my head with "I think the truth is..." and articles and their bias suddenly make a bit more sense.
Truth is a hard enough subject in math or logic classes, and even more-so outside them.
"Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth. --JMS
| The corruption and violence of the Iranian regime is what spurred the 1979 revolution that installed the current Islamist government
Indeed, but the continued radical hostility and virulent anti-Israeli ideology and corruption and terrorism and violence and lack of freedom of the current Islamist government is the fault of Ayatollah Khomeini and his fellow ideologues.
After all, Vietnam is hardly anywhere near as hostile as Iran, and the USA bombed half the country and killed a million, instead of merely being highly friendly to an authoritarian ally. Likewise all sorts of Central and South American ex-dictatorships, none exhibits the hostility of Iran despite worse actions by the USA.
You're absolutely right. The hostility and anti-semitism of the current Iranian government is disgusting.
However, I was responding to the ignorant ramblings of the previous poster, who posited the appropriateness of genocide against the Iranians. He was clearly ignorant of history and, apparently, doesn't value human life. I find that AC's hostility and bigotry disgusting too.
As an American who has not lived extensively in another country for several years now, I don't presume to speak for them. I spoke only for what I am immersed and have experienced first hand. That isn't bigotry, just confining my opinion to what I know -- my own subgroup.
I'm an American who has lived mostly in the US, and most of the folks I know understand that freedom isn't necessarily safe. And that we must speak and act to protect our liberty, especially in the face of semi-imaginary boogeymen and threats of violence that are less likely to occur than being killed by a VW bug inhabited by 27 clowns.
If those around you are that ignorant and gullible, I suggest you find a new subgroup, friend.
That's where that country belongs, back in time - should have been wiped from the face of the earth centuries ago.
Let's just fix that and wipe em from the face of the earth now. Easy enough to do, and we can always used the polished glass crater as a beam focuser for molten sand energy production.
The corruption and violence of the Iranian regime is what spurred the 1979 revolution that installed the current Islamist government.
As such, it was the CIA and its sycophantic support of the western oil industry that, in no small part, helped created the monster that is the current Iranian government. So, before you call for the genocide of millions of people, why don't you look at the complicity of others in creating modern Iran.
I could go back even further to discuss the British drawing up borders after the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.
I suggest that you remedy your lack of historical perspective. That way, you might actually be able to make a positive contribution to discussions like these.
The sad truth is the majority of Americans, at least the stereotype I apply to them, are fundamentally cowards. That, combined with the human tendency to grossly over estimate the risks from rare events with severe consequences creates this problem.
There. FTFY.
Americans aren't any different from other humans. There are smart ones, dumb ones, good ones and bad ones. Over the past century, geography and good luck (much more so than good planning), gave the American middle class a historic run. Now that's changing again, and Americans are struggling to keep what they have. Most feel they don't have time to focus on government shenanigans, which is a shame, because those who own the government are taking away the security and liberty Americans used to have.
This makes some Americans paranoid, others complacent, and still others cling more tightly to the idea of American exceptionalism. All of this seems to push folks to act against their own self-interest. Well, except for those who think that the world is theirs to exploit and that if anyone is harmed by their plundering, it's their own damn fault for not getting there first. I call it "survival of the sociopath-iest" and it turns my stomach.
tl;dr. Americans aren't any more or less cowardly or better or worse than anyone else. Stop painting people with a broad brush. It's counterproductive and leaves your bigotry showing. We're all Homo Sapiens. Full stop.
Slashdot Mirror
That assumes they'd find me. Unlike so many on /., I am not not an amateur.
Well, that makes you a grade A scumbag. Yes, I mean you, boy. And I do emphasize the word, 'boy'.
That's not stalking. Stalking requires you actually... stalk someone. Just saying that you know where he and his family operate could at best be considered assault.
Actually, according to the statute, it is. From the statute:
[Emphasis Added]
Doing as the OP suggests would, almost certainly, "cause reasonable fear of material harm to the physical health, safety or property of such person, a family member, or an acquaintance"
Such a threat is implicit in the actions advocated by OP.
No, No: somebody should do a little research on this Ingrisano character and let him know that we know where his kids go to school and the route his wife takes to work (if no wife or kids, mom and dad would do, too).
Then smile.
Scum like this deserve no better
Stalking is a crime in New York State. The behavior you suggest clearly falls under NY State's Stalking law.
While it's unlikely you would end up in State PMITA prison (unless you have a previous conviction), you might well end up in NYC PMITA Riker's Island. Which could be a problem, unless you're into that kind of thing.
""UPS is not aware of any court orders from the NSA seeking to inspect technology-related shipments" [Emphasis Mine]
The National Security Agency (NSA) is a U.S. intelligence agency responsible for providing the United States government with encrypted communications (information assurance) and the reading of encrypted communications (signals intelligence) of other nations.
The NSA is not and AFAIK, does not contain within it, any Federal Tribunals.
As such, the NSA cannot issue a court order. One might assume that other mechanisms can be used to coerce both individuals and/or corporations to submit to the will of the NSA (including court orders from actual courts, such as the FISA court.
So, UPS' statement says exactly nothing WRT whether the NSA has coerced (or just asked) to intercept their packages. Just sayin'.
Willful ignorance of what the above person said is not a good thing. An open source software developer stands to (quite probably) make money for either himself or his friends directly from going to open source because government likes being supported. Thus pushing this into law as a legislator is a direct conflict of interest, and ethically questionable. This has nothing to do with indirect benefits, like you imply.
I'll quote the original poster, so you know what I'm referring to:
Since the summary and the attached link make only one assertion as to which "organization" this guy belongs, that is the NYC Council, I questioned the validity of his point. Unless there's some shadowy "Open Source Developer" organization that I've never heard about. I suppose it's possible that the Councilman is a member of some organized group of FOSS developers, but without a reference, the OP's statements are nothing but unsubstantiated mud-slinging.
This "Pet Cause" is actually a conflict of interest and is illegal. He is part of an organization that may benefit from the decision, and should thereby recuse himself from the discussion.
The City Council could benefit? I guess that any law that might improve the lives of NYC residents could benefit the members of the City Council. By your logic, City Council members should recuse themselves from all legislation unless it harms NYC, right?
I know it's the default in NYC (and NY in general), but I still wish some of these smarter guys would rebel and throw off the chains of the Party of Slavery. It forces me to question everything you do, even if it sounds interesting and benificial.
Yes, TCO is an important consideration WRT software/systems purchasing, as is the mix of administration and support personnel currently employed by the city. We should weigh all the costs *and* benefits of any solution implemented by NYC government. I suspect that in some cases, FOSS solutions will be better and/or more cost-effective than proprietary ones, and in other cases they will not.
So, rather than go on with political party smears that haven't been true since before the majority of NYC residents (median age 33.6 years) were born, why not make a useful suggestion?
We just got rid of the scumbags (Guiliani and Bloomberg) from the "Party of Lincoln" who ran this city for the benefit of the monied interests (and who used the police to harass and harm minority communities) for twenty years.
Let's give the current administration enough rope to hang itself and see how it does.
From the proposed amendment:
I agree that we should use the right tool for the right job, but why should that exclude FOSS?
I invite you to apply Ockham's Razor in this instance.
Just because you watched Contact on Netflix doesn't mean you have to invoke that.
Huh? I don't even use Netflix. Although I think it's sad that you, apparently, found out about such an important concept from a movie. I suggest paying attention in class, boy -- and I do emphasize the word 'boy'.
I'm sorry, but your emphatic statement is not an actual fact. Unless, of course, you know something the rest of us don't. :-P
GP is using stuff called logic and reasoning. Things you are apparently unfamiliar with, friend.
If the Drake equation is to be believed, shouldn't there also be an extremely large number of planets that have become uninhabitable due to nuclear war? Why aren't we looking for signs of nuclear wars on distant planets?
Given all the unknowns in the Drake Equation, it's more a mechanism for categorizing our ignorance than anything else.
Maybe it's a convenient atmosphere for them. Maybe a large ocean can be converted into hydrogen quickly and you burn up the planet in the process. Maybe it's fun.
Well, that's what we mostly assume. Maybe they just scavenge stuff as they go.
In all honesty, if we ever met truly alien life ... we have no idea of what we would find, and what they would think of us.
They may look at us as a slave race, food source, a place to lay their eggs or any of a zillion things.
We can make educated guesses by making assumptions about them. But given the sheer number of unknowns, they may or may not have any meaning should it ever happen.
I think it's great to do thought experiments and play what if. But the reality is, at the end of the day, we can't definitely say any of that is actually fact.
So, when you say "don't", "won't", "can't" or "do", "will" and "can" -- you pretty much have to subsitute that for "well, maybe, hopefully at least, that's what my best guess tells me, and it sounds good, so I'm going with it".
Hell, for all you know our kind of planet is needed for the equivalent of the "three seashells" for wiping the arse of some interstellar slug, and it'll just eradicate us while taking a dump without even knowing (or caring) we're here. ;-)
I invite you to apply Ockham's Razor in this instance.
Yes, it is possible that several species of brain-sucking, evil aliens are even now battling it out beyond the orbit of Jupiter over who has the right to eat our sweet, tasty gray matter.
Yes, it is possible that the decadent Galactic Empire has completely run through the entire galaxy's supply of tater tots, except for the massive reserves here on Earth, so they're coming to enslave us so we can make tater tots for them for the next 10,000 years.
Yes, it's possible that beautiful female aliens need our men to propagate their species, having murdered all of their men after mating with them and we're next.
Yes, it's possible that aliens with gigantic penises are on their way to have non-consensual butt sex with every male on the planet.
Are these scenarios very likely? Not really. Are yours? No.
I'll explain and I'll use small words so you'll be sure to understand: Given the distances involved and the relative abundance of raw materials in our galaxy, it's hugely unlikely that any extra-solar intelligence would have the need, means or desire to come here and wreak havoc upon us.
I suggest you do the math (in your case, I imagine you'll need to learn the math first) as to the probabilities to see how ridiculous you sound. Have a nice day!
Yeah, but the government and oligarch class has carefully divided them into two halves, and convinced most of them that the other half is trying to take their rights away. The plan is to keep them arguing over that, while letting the important issues go undiscussed.
Yes. I didn't realize that was a point of contention anywhere. I'd point out that the "...government and the oligarch class..." aren't really separate entities. The government is a wholly owned subsidiary of the oligarch class, they're not separate entities, IMHO./p
Well, emacs isn't installed on systems by default and since I administer unix servers, knowing vi is much more valuable than knowing emacs.
And no need to flame. Use whatever works best for you. I use vi because it's on all the systems I manage, from Tru64 on Alphas to Solaris to HP-UX and yes to Red Hat, Ubuntu, and Slackware.
[John]
Hey. It's all in fun, John. And you'll get no argument from me. I do and have managed Unix (not just Linux, either -- Oh, for those SunOS 4.1 days...not!) systems of various flavors, and I can use vi (or ed, [shudder]) if I need to do so. However, emacs is what I cut my teeth on (it kicked ass over ED/EDT!) and I enormously prefer it to vi. All the same, I can't always install my editor of choice (my personal preferences don't always matter on production systems) and will use what's available.
Well, we have spent several centuries mining and purifying elements. I can think of some examples in our own world where invasions have happened to exploit technologically backward societies possession of mineral wealth.
Okay, let's assume that a space-faring civilization needed resources and had so exhausted the resources of their home solar system that they needed to exploit the resources of another solar system, then further assuming that our solar system was convenient to them, and further assuming that they had the capacity to exploit the resources in our solar system.
Given all of that, why would they come into a gravity well like the Earth's when they could get enormously more water and organic molecules from Kuiper Belt objects and enormously more metals/silicon/rocky elements from the asteroid belt than from here, without ever entering a gravity well of any consequence?
That would be like mining salt in the Mariana Trench.
The best idea seems to be not a false flag operation but a false motive operation; the motive not being to compromise TrueCrypt but to sow distrust/disuse of TrueCrypt because it's too good and makes essentially unbreakable encryption of computers possible. Intelligence agencies must run into all the time, it's trivial, portable and very flexible to use.
Pushing users to another encryption scheme leaves data vulnerable, either through known weaknesses in other systems or compromises built into other products.
I can only assume that the only reason the developer(s) haven't spoken out is that they were pressured by the government somehow.
That seems to be a fairly reasonable explanation. Since whatever went down was purposeful (even if we don't know for sure what that purpose was) and took time and effort, it's reasonable to assume that someone is gaining from this. If we can answer the "who" question, then the "why" will likely become obvious, IMHO.
From confusion surrounding the future and efficacy of TrueCrypt?
It seems strange that random h4x0r elements would post such an odd screed rather than trumpeting their success at compromising TrueCrypt's site.
It could be some sort of false flag/ploy by the intelligence/industrial complex, but that doesn't make a whole lot of sense either.
Potentially, it could be part of some targeted effort to access data encrypted with TrueCrypt by convincing some user(s) to move off of a secure platform so their data can be compromised. Presumably, this would need to be something important enough to expend significant resources to gain access to said data.
It's always a good bet to "follow the money."
Or, it could be a troll. I guess we'll just have to wait and see.
i disagree.
in my experience english people in general are different than americans in general.
yes we are all people, but to dismiss cultural differences strikes me as unwise.
there are attitudes considered normal in england that are not in america and vice versa.
i do believe that the poilitics of fear (commie! terrorist!) has made the american population afraid and cowardly.
Cultural differences are real, true enough. At the same time, I believe it's a mistake to paint 315 million people with such a broad brush. However, Far be it for me to try to disabuse you of your world view. Cheers!
FTFY: The sad truth is the majority of Americans, at least the stereotype I apply to them, is ...
THAT. Exactly that. For about a year now, every time I hear grandiose statements of "The Truth Is ..." from anybody, I replace that in my head with "I think the truth is ..." and articles and their bias suddenly make a bit more sense.
Truth is a hard enough subject in math or logic classes, and even more-so outside them.
"Understanding is a three edged sword: your side, their side, and the truth. --JMS
| The corruption and violence of the Iranian regime is what spurred the 1979 revolution that installed the current Islamist government Indeed, but the continued radical hostility and virulent anti-Israeli ideology and corruption and terrorism and violence and lack of freedom of the current Islamist government is the fault of Ayatollah Khomeini and his fellow ideologues. After all, Vietnam is hardly anywhere near as hostile as Iran, and the USA bombed half the country and killed a million, instead of merely being highly friendly to an authoritarian ally. Likewise all sorts of Central and South American ex-dictatorships, none exhibits the hostility of Iran despite worse actions by the USA.
You're absolutely right. The hostility and anti-semitism of the current Iranian government is disgusting.
However, I was responding to the ignorant ramblings of the previous poster, who posited the appropriateness of genocide against the Iranians. He was clearly ignorant of history and, apparently, doesn't value human life. I find that AC's hostility and bigotry disgusting too.
As an American who has not lived extensively in another country for several years now, I don't presume to speak for them. I spoke only for what I am immersed and have experienced first hand. That isn't bigotry, just confining my opinion to what I know -- my own subgroup.
I'm an American who has lived mostly in the US, and most of the folks I know understand that freedom isn't necessarily safe. And that we must speak and act to protect our liberty, especially in the face of semi-imaginary boogeymen and threats of violence that are less likely to occur than being killed by a VW bug inhabited by 27 clowns.
If those around you are that ignorant and gullible, I suggest you find a new subgroup, friend.
That's where that country belongs, back in time - should have been wiped from the face of the earth centuries ago.
Let's just fix that and wipe em from the face of the earth now. Easy enough to do, and we can always used the polished glass crater as a beam focuser for molten sand energy production.
You do realize that the CIA helped to overthrow the secular, democratic government of Iran in 1953 to protect the profits of western oil companies, and installed an autocratic despot who would play nice with the western oil companies for a cut of the loot.
The corruption and violence of the Iranian regime is what spurred the 1979 revolution that installed the current Islamist government.
As such, it was the CIA and its sycophantic support of the western oil industry that, in no small part, helped created the monster that is the current Iranian government. So, before you call for the genocide of millions of people, why don't you look at the complicity of others in creating modern Iran.
I could go back even further to discuss the British drawing up borders after the fall of the Ottoman Empire after WWI, but I'll leave that as an exercise for the reader.
I suggest that you remedy your lack of historical perspective. That way, you might actually be able to make a positive contribution to discussions like these.
The sad truth is the majority of Americans, at least the stereotype I apply to them, are fundamentally cowards. That, combined with the human tendency to grossly over estimate the risks from rare events with severe consequences creates this problem.
There. FTFY.
Americans aren't any different from other humans. There are smart ones, dumb ones, good ones and bad ones. Over the past century, geography and good luck (much more so than good planning), gave the American middle class a historic run. Now that's changing again, and Americans are struggling to keep what they have. Most feel they don't have time to focus on government shenanigans, which is a shame, because those who own the government are taking away the security and liberty Americans used to have.
This makes some Americans paranoid, others complacent, and still others cling more tightly to the idea of American exceptionalism. All of this seems to push folks to act against their own self-interest. Well, except for those who think that the world is theirs to exploit and that if anyone is harmed by their plundering, it's their own damn fault for not getting there first. I call it "survival of the sociopath-iest" and it turns my stomach.
tl;dr. Americans aren't any more or less cowardly or better or worse than anyone else. Stop painting people with a broad brush. It's counterproductive and leaves your bigotry showing. We're all Homo Sapiens. Full stop.
An interesting take. I addressed this further elsewhere. You might like to take a gander.
The article headline didn't say US to deny Visitors' Visas to Chinese.
That's true. I guess it's too difficult to read the first sentence of the summary. tl;dr, huh?