I don't mean to be smug. It's just kind of sad to see what's happened to a country with enormous soft power. Same goes for the US.

I wish I knew more western countries who were defending privacy, and the environment for that matter. For a period it kind of looked like Germany _might_ but that hasn't stood up (Who knows, maybe the Pirate Party will get a chancellor someday). The Nordics don't seem amazing either.

What does that leave us with? Some rocky archipelago in the middle of the Pacific? Developing nations that simply don't care or lack the ability to have meaningful enforcement? I'm really struggling to think of something.

Which other western and non-English-speaking countries are doing similar things? This democratic-authoritarianism seems to be unique to the Five Eyes nations.

There’s no monopoly on violence. Gun laws are about who can’t have guns, not who can.

People have the idea that gun control affects who either can and can't have guns. They forget about the third possibility: Schroedinger's gun owner who is in a superposition of can and can't have guns at the same time.