Re:On my resignation as regulator of the Dutch intelligence ...
by Bakary on Saturday September 10, 2022 @08:47AM
(#32790131)
The 21st century humanist understanding was always predicated on a world order of massive inequality and international power balances. Now that non-Western countries are providing more competition, and Western countries are seeing their relative living standards drop, it's not a coincidence that humanist values are more wobbly than before.
Re:On my resignation as regulator of the Dutch intelligence ...
by vkou on Saturday September 10, 2022 @01:06PM
(#32792479)
Doesn't even have to be an international power imbalance, a municipal one is sufficient.
Notice how the federal secret police is attacked in this thread, but as soon as I turn the conversation to the abuses of local police, HN consensus turns against me. People in the upper-middle class are afraid of the former, but have far less issue with brutality from the latter. The power imbalance it maintains is largely comfortable for us.
I find it quite hypocritical, but that's also not something that democracy makes any guarantees about.
Hell, if you're in the US, your local municipality is almost certainly both a democracy, and primarily exists to funnel your tax money into what is a frequently corrupt, unaccountable, and very anti-citizen police force. Nobody cares about fixing this state of affairs, because as long as its other people that are getting brutalized, I can sleep comfortably. And that's on a municipal level!