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There's been a bumper crop of stupid comments on HN this year, but yours should win the county fair.

Is there a particular era you are thinking of that was that much better than now in this respect?

I'll say it this way: Americans have never been so privacy deprived and frightened of their government as they have been in the last decade.

No one expects Obama to defend your civil liberties. He's invisible most of the time. A middle man to the oligarchy. Some say he is a great "centerist", but I say he's a man with no morals.

Since I find the kill list/drone strikes/unaccountable assassination of civilians issue particularly troubling I can see where you are coming from.

I'm just not convinced that this is a shift in terms of the "US government have been doing whatever the hell they want lately, civil liberties and public opinions be damned" statement. The specifics are different now and the tools for manufacturing consent or controversy are always shifting but the lack of concern for civil liberties or public opinion (beyond what's necessary for horse-race politics) seems like a "new boss, same as the old boss" type thing to me.

Now there is the refined argumentation I come to HNN for. Well done, son.

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