Thank you for making my point for me. When you lump your fellow citizens with the Nazis, it's no longer a civil conversation.
You must spread some Reputation around before giving it to IndyDave1776 again.
"It can't happen here" is always an excellent refutation, until it does.
It starts with the government trying to demonize a group, marginalize them, and generate social distrust. We aren't having a national dialogue on morality. It's a government backed movement to isolate devout Christians. And it seems to be working so far. Also a few bones thrown in on issues like the confederate battle flag, to stir emotions and create false connections.
The establishment clause seems under attack now. Once it's gutted, how much protection will the Constitution provide for the rest of the Bill of Rights (unless acknowledged by Justice Kennedy)?
Next up, gun owners? Or it can't happen here?
Oh well, that's better then. What's on TV tonight?
Regardless of my opinion on this ruling I find it funny that they can come to a ruling that says gay marriage is a constitutional right (which requires stretching things) yet also take an amendment as simple as the second and find that its legal for states to require permits/licenses for carrying. The right to keep and bear (carry) shall not be infringed.
Then again, I personally think the SCOTUS may be the most corrupted branch which is saying something if you even got me started on the executive branch right now.
Wait, you think that I want to send you to a prison camp, but I'm the one not living in reality?
Where in the hell did you come up with the idea that I believe that you personally want to send me or anyone else to a prison camp? I am excoriating you for demanding denial of the possibility that such a thing could happen as a precondition of your idea of a civil conversation, not for itching to be the conductor on the train to the furnace.
Since you apparently missed the memo, although the Nazis are a convenient example by virtue of having occupied recent historical memory, they did not own the patent on evil, which has been with us since time immemorial. Similarly, evil was not disinvented at the onset of the civil rights movement, including but not limited to internment camps.
Social and ethnic cleansing are not new nor are they confined to the past by any force other than our own diligence.
I hate to be the bearer of bad news for you, but your delicate sensibilities will NOT protect you from this or any other onslaught once those who would do such things are in the position to act on their desires.
Ben Franklin answered the question of what had been created with "A republic, if you can keep it." This is what he was talking about. George Washington declared that government is not reason but force. He also said that, like fire, it is a dangerous servant and a fearful master. Of course, there really isn't much point in discussing this--after all, since they are old white men they are necessarily dumber than owl sh*t and since they predate the civil rights movement they are irrelevant.
Human nature has been basically constant throughout history, right down to the ~3% of people who are sociopaths in the clinical sense. You can deny it all you like, but that doesn't change the fact, and by extension doesn't change the fact that anything that has happened in the past can happen again, only faster and more efficiently, and will happen if one or a group of those sociopaths manage to seize political power as was the case with most everyone who ran the Assyrian empire, several Egyptian Pharaohs, several Roman emperors, Antiochus IV, Tojo, Hitler & Co., Stalin & Co., Idi Amin, Pol Pot, Mao Tse-Tung, and the jackass running the Islamic State, just to rattle off a few past and present from memory. So far as he has revealed his personality, the present resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue does not seem so dissimilar. Now, tell me again how recognizing the possibility that such a thing could happen is 'not reality' and outside of the boundaries of civil conversation.
The problem with that is, you're not having a discussion with the possibility of internment. Unless someone has an AI that can consistently pass a Turing test, discussions take place between individuals. You can't divorce participation in internment from the individual; at a minimum, tacit approval is implied. And if you think I approve of sending you to a camp, then what is there to discuss?Where in the hell did you come up with the idea that I believe that you personally want to send me or anyone else to a prison camp? I am excoriating you for demanding denial of the possibility that such a thing could happen as a precondition of your idea of a civil conversation, not for itching to be the conductor on the train to the furnace.
The problem with that is, you're not having a discussion with the possibility of internment. Unless someone has an AI that can consistently pass a Turing test, discussions take place between individuals. You can't divorce participation in internment from the individual; at a minimum, tacit approval is implied. And if you think I approve of sending you to a camp, then what is there to discuss?
What is truly pathetic is that apparently 41% believe in forced servitude in violation to one's religions convictions which happen to be a significant part of the First Amendment.
It's just a snapshot in time. The numbers will eventually reverse and some day, a long time from now, people who would deny service to gays will be looked upon as we now look upon those who would deny service to blacks.
Or service to polygamists.
I am waiting for the first polygamous family-member visa applications. Where a married couple in the US marries and sponsors for legal permanent resident status an overseas non-citizen (or non-citizen couple). That is going to give rise to all sorts of new types of immigration fraud. At least among those who still actually go to the trouble of applying for a visa, which admittedly is declining to the point of insignificance.
This Administration is truly leaving future generations of Americans and crypto-Americans a project on the scale of the Augean stables.