Understanding American authoritarianism

[RogerStrong]

@Mal_Tosevite

@kupfernigk

Let’s rephrase that slightly as “Should the government be allowed to tell BP to close off a leaking oil well/stop fracking where earthquakes seem to be happening/ban lead from gasoline”. These are all about actions which can harm other people.

Let’s rephrase that slightly as “Should the government be allowed to tell Apple to open up a backdoor in iPhones so that the FBI can search terrorist suspects’ phones and hopefully prevent as many future terrorist acts as possible”. These are all about actions which can harm other people.

Those questions are not equal. The first question regards authoritarian action against only those causing harm to others. The second regards authoritarian action against people based on the possibility that one in hundred million of them may cause harm to others.

They should not push the graph into “authoritarian” by anywhere near the same amount.