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A comment on Attacking Journalists as Terrorists. Parent comment

Re:Attacking Journalists as Terrorists by naasking on Monday December 11, 2023 @11:14AM (#38601858)
It's not news that people agree with vague statements that sound good on paper. When the specifics are explained to them, they change their minds.
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Re:Attacking Journalists as Terrorists by blitzar on Monday December 11, 2023 @11:31AM (#38602017)
Q.1 Tony Blair has announced a series of anti-terrorism measures following last month's London bombings, which some people say might mean the loss of some civil liberties. Do you think it is right or wrong to lose some civil liberties to improve our security against terrorist attacks?

I dont think you really need further specifics - years later without bombs going off I expect, with no further explanation to those polled needed, that the 70/30 split would probably be the opposite direction.

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Re:Attacking Journalists as Terrorists by naasking on Monday December 11, 2023 @11:42AM (#38602116)
"Do you think it is right or wrong to lose some civil liberties to improve our security against terrorist attacks?"

That "some" is the problem. People who say they support the tradeoff often change their minds when the specifics are explained to them. This happens all of the time in polling and even rigorous studies. Subtle changes in phrasing and context completely change results.

We're seeing that right now. There was a survey done on college campuses on the phrase "from the river to the sea". many endorsed it, until they were shown a map of the region such that the specific meaning became clearer, and then a lot of them changed their minds.

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Re:Attacking Journalists as Terrorists by dfxm12 on Monday December 11, 2023 @12:51PM (#38602880)
I dont think you really need further specifics - years later without bombs going off I expect, with no further explanation to those polled needed, that the 70/30 split would probably be the opposite direction.

This sounds more like manufactured consent than the will of the people. Plus, I don't know if this happened with Blair's measures, but across the pond, the Patriot was initially written to be sunset after 4 years (from 2001), but wasn't fully sunset until 2020! This was long after the majority of Americans in polls said they didn't want to trade civil liberties to fight terror.

https://news.gallup.com/poll/183548/americans-say-liberties-...

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