Millions and millions of Americans have been imprisoned for nonviolent drug offenses. Meanwhile, alcohol and cigarette and pharmaceutical companies make millions of dollars every year peddling drugs of their own. Anyone who doesn't think that is unjust is being deliberately dishonest.
Due to collusion between corporate and government sectors, the distinction between the two has become increasingly blurred.
So wanting basic freedoms and some semblance of fiscal responsibility is too high of a standard for you?
Right...which is their own fault as they know drugs are illegal, right? Not sure why you’re struggling to understand this concept.
Of course it matters. Germany doesn't need the US to protect them. If Germany wants to construct nuclear weapons, it will do so. The US presence in Germany isn't for Germany's protection. To claim otherwise is just bizarre. Switzerland's defense strategy has been the same strategy for almost two centuries. And it has never relied on the US for protection.
It's not a question of fault, but of justice. And arresting and imprisoning people for nonviolent drug offenses is extremely unjust. That this unjust practice is legally sanctioned only serves to reinforce my point about how unjust the legal system is. Not sure why you're struggling to understand the concepts of fairness and justice.
You have no idea what is too high a standard for me. You only have your very narrow definition what you want and anything else is lacking and therefore everyone else is wrong. That is not freedom.
Apparently Ethereal thinks all of American culture and society should change just to make him feel more "free".
Someone who characterizes the phony war on drugs which has been responsible for imprisoning and ruining the lives of tens of thousands of people who should have never been prosecuted in the first place as "Not much" is hopelessly lost in a fascist world. This insidious attack on mostly innocent Americans was invented by John Erlichman, Nixon's assistant and Watergate co-conspirator for the purpose of incarcerating minorities (blatant racism) and war protestors during the Nixon administration's genocidal war crimes during the Vietnam war.
From his posts it seems his concept of fairness and justice is whatever the state decides is fair and just, not what the Constitution mandates is fair and just. In other words, he is quite comfortable with an authoritarian system.
I have an answer. We have a great country with great people and an incompetent and corrupt federal government. I'm surprised you didn't know that.
Which of course doesn’t change the fact that drugs were made illegal decades before Nixon’s administration.
This thread just goes to show that in last 10,000 or so years of existence, the species has not evolved. Most humans are still small, irrational, scared unthinking mammals huddled together in the dark in a cave fearing things that should not be feared... superstitious spineless monkeys that call out to their gods for help, just now they worship the state and call out to their masters.
Which of course doesn't change the fact that Erlichman was the architect for the modern "war on drugs", which is what I posted in the first place. What is your point?
Certainly not. Government shovels money into the pockets of the greedy, privileged, parasitic rich. That's self-evidently how they get rapidly richer without lifting a productive finger.
A country that imprisons a larger fraction of its population than any other, mostly for "crimes" that violate no one's rights, can be called many things, but "free" is not one of them.