The time to leave the US is now. You no longer have the basic rule of law. Collect your family and possessions and emigrate.
It's not easy[1], but it's the only way, now. We're never getting those rights back.
[1] I did it. It's tough, no foolin'.
IMHO moving out of the US just avoids the problem, instead of solving it. We need to put more support behind advocacy groups like the EFF who's mission statement is to fight against the infringement of personal rights.
I'm not saying that the US is strictly better than Canada in the rights department. However, it's definitely not strictly worse.
Fascist countries don't tend to be very tolerant of their friendly neighbors.
>You no longer have the basic rule of law.
In many EU countries (my own included) people would start either crying bitterly or laughing hysterically have you told this to anybody older than 12. Loosing control over your mail shouldn't be the turning point in making a decision whether to emigrate or not.
Arguably this is already happening.
The turning point is often just the final straw, not "everything was 100% fine up until they started reading my email".
Fleeing is also an option, but I am 100% sure Sneak had more reasons to move abroad than just PATRIOT and NDAA.
[1] A decision of a court that assumes that a publication is violating another person's personal rights (a newspaper for example can be forced not to publish private pictures).
[2] All forms of movie ratings (also for computer games but not for books) motivated by youth protection.
[3] Media that is assumed to be very harmful to youth is indexed by the Bundesprüfstelle für jugendgefährdende Medien (Federal Department for Media Harmful to Young Persons). These publications are restricted in marketing but not de jure censored in general. Indexing can grant publicity but is often tried to prevent. The reduced violence in some German versions of movies and games that carry a USK rating have in fact not been censored, but the companies releasing them have decided themselves to remove certain content in order to make the media available to a wider audience.
[4] Publications violating laws (that restrict freedom of speech in general) can be censored; their authors can be penalised. Such restrictions are Volksverhetzung, slander and libel (which are in Germany Beleidigung, Verleumdung and Üble Nachrede). Especially Üble Nachrede (defamatory statement) scarcely causes censorship. Üble Nachrede (Defamatory statement) means violating personal rights by spreading gossip/news which are neither evidentially true or false.
Membership in a Nazi party, incitement of hatred against a segment of the population (Volksverhetzung) and Holocaust denial, are illegal in Germany. Publishing, television, public correspondence (including lectures), and music are censored accordingly, with legal consequences that may include jail time.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_in_Germany
Wow, so much freedom the government must step in to stop people from thinking certain ideas, and voicing certain opinions, now that's freedom!
Let's talk about banned video games:
Soldier of Fortune: Payback - Banned due to high levels of gore (decapitations, dismemberments, and excessive blood-letting) KZ Manager (1990-10-29/1990-11-19) - Banned because of Nazi references. Condemned: Criminal Origins (Decision AG Munic February 2008) - Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty. Condemned 2: Bloodshot - Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty. Manhunt (all versions, 2004-07-19) - Banned because of high impact scary violence and cruelty. Manhunt 2 - Banned for "gross, unrelenting, and gratuitous violence." Dead Rising - Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty. Dead Rising 2 - Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty. Silent Hill: Homecoming (Uncut) - Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty. Wolfenstein (Uncut) - Banned because of Nazi references. Scarface: The World is Yours (Uncut) - Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty. Left 4 Dead 2 (Uncut) - Banned because of high impact violence and cruelty. The Darkness (Uncut European Xbox 360 version) - Banned because of Nazi signs in bonus comic.
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_banned_video_games#Germ...
Yes indeed, what a way to celebrate your new found freedom by cowardly running away to a country that itself was home to some of the worst atrocities known to man kind; further compounding your stupidity because that country itself has many banned topics, ideas, and restrictions on how you can express yourself.
You are a coward, and I say good riddance to you, because surely whenever things get tough in a country, the answer is to turn tail and run away to somewhere "better".
The USA PATRIOT Act turned 10 years old in October 2011. If it was going to get better, it would have happened in the first decade.
There are way more things you can't say in the USA than there are things you can't say in Germany. On paper, it certainly appears as if the US has more liberty, sure.
I realized that it was time to go when I walked up the path to the Jefferson Memorial and saw a sign indicating that carrying firearms is prohibited on the grounds.
The liberties that are guaranteed to you in the constitution are no longer real. The fact that Germany enumerates the specific things you can't say and do actually makes it much better here.
EDIT: Found the sign from the TJ memorial. I took a picture of it when I was in DC to visit the NSA's Crypto Museum. http://i.imgur.com/KROsp.jpg
I've lived in both, I can say with authority: One is a lot more free in practice, here. The police concern themselves with criminals, not with bullying. Surveillance is a lot less common. The government isn't wholesale tapping the fibers (or, if they are, they were slick enough to censor the news stories and books about them doing it, too). There aren't laws suspending certain groups' right to trial.
I agree with you completely about Scientology. And I'd rather have Scientology Centers on as many corners as Christian churches than have a government that colludes with private employers to screen new hires based on their religion.
It's one thing to say that the government should have nothing whatsoever to do with religion, including tax exemption. It's another to say that not only should the government be in the business of picking "legit" religions and designating others as scams or cults, but that it should then be using its power to coordinate a shunning of adherents to those religions.
It's not like the problem is that Germany doesn't respect Scientology. I could give a shit; I don't respect it either. It's that Germany thinks it's the role of the state to tell people what they can and can't believe.
Which makes it way different, from say, the Catholic Church.
Ridiculous. Name one.
http://www.digitaljournal.com/article/337303
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2004_Republican_National_Conven...
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dmitry_Sklyarov
There are tons of different forms of legal expression that directly lead to arrest in the USA.
And I'd rather be corralled into a "free speech zone" for expressing a countervailing political opinion than arrested and indicted for it, as you would be in Germany.
The people at the RNC _were_ arrested.
My point stands. If anything, you just reinforced it by pointing that out.
The people at the RNC _were_ arrested.
And then what happened to them?
The reality is, one nanny state is as good/bad as another. You can point to no objective evidence that Germany is a more enlightened, tolerant, or liberal nation than the US. It's great that you're happy there, but you shouldn't have to indulge in rhetorical gymnastics to affirm your decision to stay... and you can't possibly expect such cherry-picking to convince anyone else.
...says the smurf account. If you actually disagree with someone say it with your main or don't say it at all.
The comment you're responding to isn't a drive-by. It makes a substantive argument. If it's wrong, address the wrongness.