Mind boggling

[BikerDude]

It is honestly depressing as an American to listen to this

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MDYMw1p8s9M

[jgiffin]

I'm only two minutes into it and about as pissed-off as the guy.

They should have just snuck across the border. Then the US would have about 20 fucking agencies to help him break the law. But the guy tries to go to the mall with his wife and goddamn special agent Tackleberry wants to put him in Gitmo.

Also, the stat about his finding three terrorists crossing the border everyday...well, I call bullshit.

[BikerDude]

Also, the stat about his finding three terrorists crossing the border everyday...well, I call bullshit.

Well of course it is.
But in the twisted mind of these fucks this guy and his wife are terrorists.
They fulfill their own expectations. And in the end believe even their own bullshit.
The police state is here already.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=MMRqOBQqsOo

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=uTWy8tjTiTw

More and more the greatness of Orwell is illuminated.


War is peace.
Freedom is slavery.
Ignorance is strength."
? George Orwell, 1984

"If you want a picture of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face—for ever."
? George Orwell, 1984

"But if thought corrupts language, language can also corrupt thought."
? George Orwell, 1984

"Doublethink means the power of holding two contradictory beliefs in one's mind simultaneously, and accepting both of them."
? George Orwell, 1984

"Until they became conscious they will never rebel, and until after they have rebelled they cannot become conscious."
? George Orwell, 1984

"Now I will tell you the answer to my question. It is this. The Party seeks power entirely for its own sake. We are not interested in the good of others; we are interested solely in power, pure power. What pure power means you will understand presently. We are different from the oligarchies of the past in that we know what we are doing. All the others, even those who resembled ourselves, were cowards and hypocrites. The German Nazis and the Russian Communists came very close to us in their methods, but they never had the courage to recognize their own motives. They pretended, perhaps they even believed, that they had seized power unwillingly and for a limited time, and that just around the corner there lay a paradise where human beings would be free and equal. We are not like that. We know that no one ever seizes power with the intention of relinquishing it. Power is not a means; it is an end. One does not establish a dictatorship in order to safeguard a revolution; one makes the revolution in order to establish the dictatorship. The object of persecution is persecution. The object of torture is torture. The object of power is power. Now you begin to understand me."
? George Orwell, 1984

"Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing."
? George Orwell, 1984

"Big Brother is Watching You."
? George Orwell, 1984

"Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad."
? George Orwell, 1984

"The choice for mankind lies between freedom and happiness and for the great bulk of mankind, happiness is better."
? George Orwell, 1984

"Freedom is the freedom to say that two plus two make four. If that is granted, all else follows."
? George Orwell, 1984

"Orthodoxy means not thinking--not needing to think. Orthodoxy is unconsciousness."
? George Orwell, 1984

"For, after all, how do we know that two and two make four? Or that the force of gravity works? Or that the past is unchangeable? If both the past and the external world exist only in the mind, and if the mind itself is controllable – what then?"
? George Orwell, 1984

"You are a slow learner, Winston."
"How can I help it? How can I help but see what is in front of my eyes? Two and two are four."
"Sometimes, Winston. Sometimes they are five. Sometimes they are three. Sometimes they are all of them at once. You must try harder. It is not easy to become sane."
? George Orwell, 1984

[jgiffin]

I've read 1984 three or four times - can't say that about many books. It never fails to shock and reveal new insights to the modern age. It's been several years. Might be time for another read.

[BikerDude]

I've read 1984 three or four times - can't say that about many books. It never fails to shock and reveal new insights to the modern age. It's been several years. Might be time for another read.

I read it when I was young and as much as I enjoyed it I didn't ever think it actually resemble American society.
How wrong I was.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=rOTklNcq0ek

[BikerDude]

This thread reminds me how smart the really great novelists can be.
Listen to Mailer on the eve of the latest Iraq invasion.
I'm always amazed at how much these guys seem to have a finger on the pulse.
Mailer could be a real douche in real life. But the dude nailed very often.

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=a7LUkXab-og

[LotsaBadKarma]

The old saying "don't fight city hall" comes to mind.
Granted, there was ass-holiness on both sides but crusader boy could have avoided getting himself into a world of shit by just saying "yes sir" and "no sir". When you're locked in a room where the only witnesses are hostile discretion is definitely the better part of valor. Just go along with the program, walk out the door, shake hands with your "interviewer" and maybe you've seen the last discourteous treatment at the border. Maybe they remember you and next time you cross they just wave you through. As it is this guy is gonna have to probably bend over and grab his ankles every time he wants to go shopping from now on.
Not the brightest way to deal with the Border Patrol.
I am fully aware that I am gonna catch some flack but this is, after all, the real world.

[jgiffin]

The old saying "don't fight city hall" comes to mind.
Granted, there was ass-holiness on both sides but crusader boy could have avoided getting himself into a world of shit by just saying "yes sir" and "no sir". When you're locked in a room where the only witnesses are hostile discretion is definitely the better part of valor. Just go along with the program, walk out the door, shake hands with your "interviewer" and maybe you've seen the last discourteous treatment at the border. Maybe they remember you and next time you cross they just wave you through. As it is this guy is gonna have to probably bend over and grab his ankles every time he wants to go shopping from now on.
Not the brightest way to deal with the Border Patrol.
I am fully aware that I am gonna catch some flack but this is, after all, the real world.

You're not wrong. Hell, you're not even an asshole. And you're giving good practical advice to would-be border crossers.

But the guy was respectful and responsive to a reasonable point. The cop, on the other hand, was determined to ask enough an overabundance of innocuous questions and eventually reveal him for the terrorist bastard that he so clearly was not. This was escalation for, at best, the mere point of escalation and, at worst, a fascist dick-measuring contest. It incensed me to hear that everyone is required to adhere to an officer's instructions simply because, well, he's an officer. At the risk of agreeing with the continually wrong BLM movement: fuck that.

[LotsaBadKarma]

The old saying "don't fight city hall" comes to mind.
Granted, there was ass-holiness on both sides but crusader boy could have avoided getting himself into a world of shit by just saying "yes sir" and "no sir". When you're locked in a room where the only witnesses are hostile discretion is definitely the better part of valor. Just go along with the program, walk out the door, shake hands with your "interviewer" and maybe you've seen the last discourteous treatment at the border. Maybe they remember you and next time you cross they just wave you through. As it is this guy is gonna have to probably bend over and grab his ankles every time he wants to go shopping from now on.
Not the brightest way to deal with the Border Patrol.
I am fully aware that I am gonna catch some flack but this is, after all, the real world.

You're not wrong. Hell, you're not even an asshole. And you're giving good practical advice to would-be border crossers.

But the guy was respectful and responsive to a reasonable point. The cop, on the other hand, was determined to ask enough an overabundance of innocuous questions and eventually reveal him for the terrorist bastard that he so clearly was not. This was escalation for, at best, the mere point of escalation and, at worst, a fascist dick-measuring contest. It incensed me to hear that everyone is required to adhere to an officer's instructions simply because, well, he's an officer. At the risk of agreeing with the continually wrong BLM movement: fuck that.

You're right. I can't dispute any of what you've said. My point is that you're locked in a room with people who, for whatever reason, felt the need to get you out of your car and into that room away from prying eyes and video recording so the story ends in whatever fashion they want it to end. And is the guy correct in feeling put upon, sure. But he would have almost certainly been on his way and in the clear had he just exercised a bit of discretion from the beginning because we are living in "The Kingdom of Fear" and this is what fear looks like. Overreactions are the order of the day. And when one comes to a border crossing that is manned by officers does it become one's obligation to adhere to an officer's instructions simply because he is an officer? Unless one has a desire to end up like our Canadian friend. Because there's the world as we wish it could be and there's the world as it is. This is the world as it is. Unfortunately.