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Comment by BTinfinity | Hacker News Reader

Might be a bit of a stretch to call everyone in the UK shady based on your experiences of one single city.

Perhaps. But there have been repeated exposes of the UK's torture exports, with less public reaction than you'd get for a bad football ref decision.

Plus, the people are responsible for the actions of their government. So yeah, too bad if it hurts everyones feelings, but the UK is a pretty hard-core country when it comes to repression.

The extent to which the people are responsible for the actions of their government varies significantly between countries, even among developed democracies. The UK constitution (like those of several other developed democracies, but unlike others) promotes minority control, voter apathy, and polarisation.

Any population which gains life advantages as a result of its physical presence in a region governed by an entity, minority or otherwise, is responsible for the state - whether they were democratically 'allowed' to select their rulers, or otherwise.

Even in totalitarian dictatorships, still rather a thing in the modern world, the population are responsible for those dictatorships.

You can't govern the unwilling. Eventually, the unwilling will either be tacitly allied with the mechanics of the society, or they will be demoted to terrorist enemies, should they attempt to change that society without, alas, the approval of the ruling minority.

You choose to stay in a country which represses minorities. You don't have it forced on you.

You make a fair point, but there are nevertheless people in the UK not responsible for their government's actions. For some, leaving isn't a realistic option. Anyway, leaving means not being around to campaign for change.

Leaving is the only possible change.

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