When did America become a nation of frightened wimps?

[meldroc]

http://www.steve-olson.com/when-did-america-become-a-nation-of-frightened-wimps/

It is the first responsibility of every citizen is to question authority – Benjamin Franklin

When did America become a nation of frightened wimps? When did we cross the line from courage to cowardice? Was it sometime in the 1990s? After the Oklahoma City bombing? After the Columbine shootings? After 911?

When did we decide to allow the police to smash into private homes without knocking and identifying themselves? Recently, in the suburb I live in, a special police force dressed in black Nazi style uniforms busted into a suburban home without warning and dragged a school teacher out of her house with an automatic weapon at the back of her head. They forced her to the ground, handcuffed her, and hauled her away while her neighbors watched. They did it without a warrant and without consequence. Why? A misunderstanding. That is precisely why we need checks in place, to avoid misunderstandings and abuses. The police chief said, “When we realized it was a mistake, we all had a good laugh.” If a group of unidentified men dragged his wife away at gunpoint, I wonder if he would still think it was funny.

When did we decide it was okay to strip search an old lady at the airport because the pin in her hip set off the metal detector? When did we decide it was too risky to take a cup of coffee on an airplane? When did we decide it was reasonable to make a nursing mother drink her own breast milk to prove she wasn’t a terrorist? When we impose such extreme levels of security, haven’t the terrorists already won? Haven’t we willingly given our freedom to the government and the terrorists in the name of security?

When did we decide it was okay for policemen in combat boots with German Shepherds to patrol High School hallways?

Yeah I know, I'm drunk on rageahol this morning.

[kirby]

1. 9/11 8:46 EST n/t

[underpants]

2. Jan 20, 1981

When the "adults" were back in charge and THE MAN had finally put down the people getting all uppity n shit

[Serial Mom]

4. exactly!

[Double T]

3. America has become a police state...........

time for NEW leadership and the eradication of RW neocon conservatives in all levels of government.

[Breeze54]

9. And from both parties!

;)

[Jonathan50]

5. A long time before you think it happened.

Haven’t we willingly given our freedom to the government and the terrorists in the name of security?

As I showed with my thread about "a simple solution to the drunk driving problem", our rights are already gone and have been gone for some time now.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x596448

We allowed the government to so terrify us about "drugs" that we gave away our rights, we begged the government to take them from us in order to protect us from "drugs".

When we allowed the government to order employers to make us piss in a cup in order to get or keep a job, that's when we became a nation of wimps.

You get the government you deserve.

[Bobbieo]

10. The man and his administration who put this course in motion is still doing it -

and I don't see anyone stopping him. He still has a year and a half to go as POTUS!

[Jonathan50]

11. I thought Nixon was dead?

[whyverne]

6. Be afraid, be very afraid.

To paraphrase Gore, us old farts puttered around all day for most of our lives, with a thousand nuclear missiles pointed at us and we didn't much think about it. But foreigners with knives, "head for the hills, Martha".

[RaleighNCDUer]

7. it started when we put the first Bush in the white house, as VP.

It was in the 80s that the "war on drugs" militarized police forces across the country - it was in the 80s that we first started having masked, unidentifiable SWAT teams making no-knock entries - it was in the 80s that the civil rights advances of the 60s and 70s were disloged by the "war on drugs", the new face of Jim Crow. It was in the 80s that "Cops", and all its copycats, first showed us just how scary the world was, in spite of our own experiences.

After 15-20 years being prepped for it, we were ready to surrender our rights by 9/11.

[Name removed]

8. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Kerrytravelers]

12. The pussification of the average American male...

Humm... I would think it began with the decline of public education in this country. No one has the intelligence to see they're being made a fool of by allowing themselves to be afraid.


Not exactly sure how I feel about the "pussification of the average American male." What exactly is being "pussified?"

[Name removed]

14. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Breeze54]

13. If the average American male

were truly "pussified", then they would be tough!

But alas, they only have swinging grapes.

Easy to crush...
























...their ego's.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

15. Apparently...

a lot of people didn't get the irony of Fight Club.

[Venus Dog]

18. Thank you!

:think:

I don't know what else to say to that person's post except that, in my view, it reflects exactly what is wrong with the world and, frankly, I really don't know anymore how we are going to change that.

[Kerrytravelers]

35. Are you talking about me?

I didn't get the irony of the Fight Club reference. I've seen it once and just couldn't get into it.

[Kerrytravelers]

36. ooops. dupe.

I keep getting an error message and my computer is dragging today.

[Daedelus76]

20. I think I got it

It really is a movie/book that speaks to my generation. The ending wasn't so great (a bit confusing), but it was all about the fact that now days, there are no real men anymore. Not many, anyways. And we've been sold alot of lies and illusions, and they start to crumble and there's nothing left, "Our Great War is a spiritual war. Our Great Depression is our lives." So we get pushed around and shoved around so much, and we buy into all the crap trying to fill the void, when we really don't have to. "You aren't your IKEA furniture... You aren't your kakhis". The only thing left that is authentic is pain- pain is real and cannot be ignored, it demands attention, so they start the fight club and Project Mayhem. Lots of male bonding and blowing stuff up. Feed you inner beast, etc. Great stuff.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

23. Nope, you missed it.

The "pussified" men, as you put it, in Fight Club are the ones so insecure about themselves that they need to form their super-secret-awesome fight club and duke it out, pretending to be macho.

[Daedelus76]

25. that's a different take on the movie

... not sure I agree with it, though.

My take is the fight club was necessary as a spiritual thing. Nobody is totally secure in themselves, we all need something to believe in. The protagonist lies to himself with furniture, finaly he lies to himself going to support groups he doesn't even belong to, leeching off the pain in others instead of confronting it in himself... and finally it all breaks down and he meets Tyler Durden. For the men in Fight Club, it was Fight Club. And Fight Club was much more real and authentic than worrying about khakhi pants, credit cards, and IKEA furniture, and certainly better than going to testicular cancer meetings and faking pain.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

28. The fight club members were a bunch of suckers.

That's the whole point of the movie, goofy.

[Daedelus76]

31. they were pawns

sure, but suckers? Suckers to IKEA or suckers to Tyler Durden, take your pick. I'd rather be a sucker to Tyler Durden, because at least they were going somewhere.

They were necessary pawns to advance the plot, to the realization that Tyler Durden and "Jack" were really the same person, so Jack could move on with his life and decide for himself how to live. It's sort of a weak ending, but you have to wrap it up somehow. It's one of those films that is more imagery than coherent plot.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

32. That's the whole point.

They just replaced IKEA and khakis or whatever with a fight club.

If they were "real men" then they wouldn't have needed either.

The ending is the whole point of the movie.

[Daedelus76]

39. or maybe they just wanted a safe ending?

My take is totally different. The author(s) didn't like the direction the story was heading (was it actually heading anywhere?), so they gave it a safe ending. One where Jack lives "happily ever after". It is indeed a safe ending (though I can't think of how a cinematic depiction of suicide is "safe" frankly). He gets the girl, roll the credits. If Tyler is just Jacks masculine id telling him to wake up, then he's effectively shooting himself and denying himself in the process. If he's not... there's not much point to the film.

[kiahzero]

38. It's not all that surprising.

I don't think most people grasp the deeper meanings behind most fiction.

[skooooo]

21. yeah right..

There's not enough anger and aggression in society today.
:eyes:

[Daedelus76]

29. plenty of anger and aggression

... it's just all self-destructive, because it's tinged with fear and a lack of courage. None of it is directed at the people responsible. People are afraid to confront the real threats.

It's like with animals that live in a herd/pack. They'll turn on themselves when they get nervous and insecure. Are people just a herd or pack? We don't like to think of ourselves that way.

[Solly Mack]

26. think much of your nuts do you?

saggy baggy and sinking fast...

[SarahB]

40. That's an incredibly sexist comment.

You are equating weakness with a female body part and females themselves.

Strong men don't do that either.

[spoony]

16. The day those Lite-Brite aliens appeared n/t

[gatorboy]

17. When the cartoons attacked Boston.

After that, we were doomed.

[Daedelus76]

22. Boston jumped the shark

The Mooninites were too much.

[MedleyMisty]

19. When were we not cowards?

I do know that if the collective we (obviously there have been very many brave individuals on this particular bit of land) did turn into cowards at some point as opposed to always having been cowards, it was before 9/11. I was in high school when the two guys shot up Columbine High, and yeah, the adults went completely crazy over that.

[Daedelus76]

24. the great depression

Those people were brave. And fortunately they had a leader worthy of the times. My grandma still tells me stories of how neighbors basicly ate nothing but nuts from their tree for a year, people ate molded food, etc. People would walk a couple of miles to my grandpas house just for free pancakes and sorghum, especially after greedy bankers bought up parts of their farms ( one my grandpas only vices is he is not fond of Jews, because the guy running the draft board in eastern Oklahoma was also a banker who seized land when people couldn't take care of their farms anymore... because they were off to war. Not saying it's right but that's why the Hebrews are one subject you don't bring up with him, though he is a Mason and went to lodge with some Jews).

People had nothing; there was no room in their lives for BS. They were tough people.

[jmg257]

27. Easy - 1903 - after the Dick act.

Once the responsibility and duty of the people to provide for their own defense, for their own security, for their own well-being, and especially for the protection of their liberties, was taken over by the federal government - apparently with the people's consent - they became a bunch of pussies more then willing to let ever more of their power be usurped by government.

Why lazy or inept bastards would depend on, or trust, complete strangers more then they trust themselves - WITH THEIR OWN SECURITY AND LIBERTY - is beyond me. ANYONE who trades liberty for an illusion of safety, or for an easier...life-style - deserves what he gets - unfortunately the rest of us suffer.

[TahitiNut]

30. In 1973

:shrug:

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

33. When politicians decided we needed "leaders" rather than representatives.

“The whole aim of practical politics is to keep the populace alarmed (and hence clamorous to be led to safety) by menacing it with an endless series of hobgoblins, all of them imaginary.” H.L. Mencken

[Raine]

34. America has become

a nation of victim losers who can't stand up for themselves. If the founding fathers had been like people are today we would still be curtsying to the queen. x(

[tabasco]

37. The "war" on drugs got their foot in the door.

The "war" on terror and the Patriot Act have kicked down the door. The police state exists to perpetuate itself.

It is an industry that needs a steady supply of "criminals" or people will lose their livelihood.

Marijuana (less harmful than alcohol) will be legalized over the dead body of the police state. Marijuana "criminals" are the greatest boon to the police state.

They hate us for our freedoms. LMAO!!

[Jonathan50]

41. "Drug crimes" are crimes against the state.

Since there is no discernable victim in a "drug crime" then the crime must be one against the state.

Note that a murderer or rapist who serves his time is then eligible for federal educational benefits.

Get busted with one seed and you are no longer eligible for such benefits.

http://www.insidehighered.com/news/2005/09/28/drug

Sept. 28, 2005
Drug Law Denies Aid to Thousands

About 20,000 students each year are denied Pell Grants and about 30,000 to 40,000 lose out on student loans because of a federal law that denies financial aid to college students who’ve been convicted of drug crimes, according to a federal study released Tuesday.

The report issued by the Government Accountability Office examined a raft of federal laws that deny various benefits — including food stamps and some federal housing — to citizens who have had drug convictions. In 1998, Congress amended the Higher Education Act of 1965 to restrict eligibility for federal financial aid to students who have been convicted of certain drug charges under federal or state laws.

[gravity]

42. It's all relative

I really don't think changed at all really. 60 years ago, everyone was afraid of communism. There is always something to fear, and the media and politicians will play off those fears for their own advantage.

We are never going to be 100% safe, and when things are going well for us, our fears just become more irrational and far-fetched.

[meldroc]

43. Another good article on this subject:

It was brought up here on DU by Jonathan50...

Why are Americans so docile?

I think the section on fear of loss of employment is right on - it used to be that once you got a job, as long as you didn't screw up too badly, you were set for years. Now, hardly anyone has a job they can count on having for more than a year or two, pay is decreasing, benefits are decreasing, people can't just take days off when they want to anymore, and people get fired for the tiniest pretenses. If they get fired, they lose their livelihoods, and they lose health insurance. People are rightly afraid.