Our Founding Fathers were well aware of all the facets of human nature you describe when they wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They understood that while government is necessary to maintain a civilized society, it is a necessary evil. Thus they sought to strictly limit its power with various checks and balances. In particular, …
Our Founding Fathers were well aware of all the facets of human nature you describe when they wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They understood that while government is necessary to maintain a civilized society, it is a necessary evil. Thus they sought to strictly limit its power with various checks and balances. In particular, the Bill of Rights stands as a bulwark against government tyranny over the individual.
If you're worried about murderers, you should know that throughout history, government has been the greatest murderer of all time. Did you know that 262 million people died due to governments in the 20th century alone? This figure excludes people who died shooting at each other in armed conflicts. The term "democide" refers to the killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by a government agent acting in their official capacity. This definition excludes people executed for crimes such as murder, as long as they received a fair trial. Yet it includes people executed in "show trials" which are trials with a predetermined outcome. Essentially, the word democide constitutes what for an individual would be murder, except that it was carried out by a government and often on a much grander scale (i.e. mass murder).
While there's some overlap between genocide and democide, the two terms are not synonymous. Genocide refers to targeting a particular group for death/ depopulation based on certain characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, etc. Democide is a broader term which can encompass genocide, yet it is not limited to any particular demographic. The mass deaths caused by COVID shots and the starvation due to lockdowns in the Developing World are examples of a world-wide democide.
The concentration of political power, erosion of human rights, suspension of due process requirements, the establishment of illegal courts, show trials, political witch hunts, segregation, stigmatization and dehumanizing rhetoric are all harbingers of impending democide.
Here is a quote from the Wikipedia page on democide that references the work of democide researcher Rudolf Rummel:
"One of his main findings was that democracies have much less democide than authoritarian regimes.[2] Rummel argued that there is a relation between political power and democide. Political mass murder grows increasingly common as political power becomes unconstrained. At the other end of the scale, where power is diffuse, checked, and balanced, political violence is a rarity. According to Rummel, "[t]he more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom.'[10] Rummel argued that 'concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth.'[11]"
Once you realize that you are statistically far more likely to die at the hands of your own government than any mass shooter, serial killer, rapist, burglar, or even illegal alien, you realize how critically important those rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights really are. Those rights are there above all else to protect you from your own government.
Pro-Second Amendment people have long known this. We know the tricks our government plays on us when they hype up the latest mass shooting event followed by calls for gun control or confiscation. Gun people know to ignore the hype and don't budge an inch on the Second Amendment. In fact, we double down on it. Why? Because you will always have more to fear from the government that wants to limit your ability to defend yourself than you will from any random criminal off the street.
I approach the other Amendments to the Bill of Rights the same way. If I hear some scare story about the latest boogeyman followed by calls for doing away with the due process requirements of a fair trial spelled out in the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments, I know there's more to fear from the loss of those rights than there is from the boogeyman of the day. Frankly, I'm not too worried about the boogeymen. That's at least partly what the 2nd Amendment is for. I'm much more worried about the calls to give up our rights to a fair trial, to due process, to not be tortured, etc. And you should be too.
Frankly Edward, it is you who are naive if you think the solution to crime is giving up any portion of our Bill of Rights so that criminals can be executed more expeditiously. Do you think some authoritarian regime that is more at liberty to use force wherever it sees fit would keep you safer? On the contrary, an authoritarian regime is far more likely to get everyone reading this killed than the individual criminals you're so worried about.
In summary, the most dangerous people of all are in your own government. If they aren't already criminals, many of them would be if they got the chance. And even if you could remove every last criminal from government, it's just human nature that more would take their place. This was the theme of Orwell's Animal Farm.
So no matter the crisis, no matter the boogeymen, never budge an inch on any of your rights. Remember, if you deny even your worst enemy a fair trial or the right to free speech or the right to peaceably assemble, you've lost those rights yourself.
You have no idea at all how I feel you are accurately acute in your perspectives. We should not however forget about islam as the most violent and criminal false religion that ever existed/exists and the threat is has historically proven itself to be. It is a "political/religious movement that is responsible for the murder and enslavement of millions of people throughout history and yes, it has forced its evil governency on many countries. Genghis Khan murdered hundreds of millions and as a danger to Freedom and Justice, is the biggest threat ever at this specific juncture in time.
Our Founding Fathers were well aware of all the facets of human nature you describe when they wrote the Constitution and Bill of Rights. They understood that while government is necessary to maintain a civilized society, it is a necessary evil. Thus they sought to strictly limit its power with various checks and balances. In particular, the Bill of Rights stands as a bulwark against government tyranny over the individual.
If you're worried about murderers, you should know that throughout history, government has been the greatest murderer of all time. Did you know that 262 million people died due to governments in the 20th century alone? This figure excludes people who died shooting at each other in armed conflicts. The term "democide" refers to the killing of an unarmed or disarmed person by a government agent acting in their official capacity. This definition excludes people executed for crimes such as murder, as long as they received a fair trial. Yet it includes people executed in "show trials" which are trials with a predetermined outcome. Essentially, the word democide constitutes what for an individual would be murder, except that it was carried out by a government and often on a much grander scale (i.e. mass murder).
While there's some overlap between genocide and democide, the two terms are not synonymous. Genocide refers to targeting a particular group for death/ depopulation based on certain characteristics such as race, ethnicity, religion, etc. Democide is a broader term which can encompass genocide, yet it is not limited to any particular demographic. The mass deaths caused by COVID shots and the starvation due to lockdowns in the Developing World are examples of a world-wide democide.
The concentration of political power, erosion of human rights, suspension of due process requirements, the establishment of illegal courts, show trials, political witch hunts, segregation, stigmatization and dehumanizing rhetoric are all harbingers of impending democide.
Here is a quote from the Wikipedia page on democide that references the work of democide researcher Rudolf Rummel:
"One of his main findings was that democracies have much less democide than authoritarian regimes.[2] Rummel argued that there is a relation between political power and democide. Political mass murder grows increasingly common as political power becomes unconstrained. At the other end of the scale, where power is diffuse, checked, and balanced, political violence is a rarity. According to Rummel, "[t]he more power a regime has, the more likely people will be killed. This is a major reason for promoting freedom.'[10] Rummel argued that 'concentrated political power is the most dangerous thing on earth.'[11]"
Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democide
Once you realize that you are statistically far more likely to die at the hands of your own government than any mass shooter, serial killer, rapist, burglar, or even illegal alien, you realize how critically important those rights enumerated in the Bill of Rights really are. Those rights are there above all else to protect you from your own government.
Pro-Second Amendment people have long known this. We know the tricks our government plays on us when they hype up the latest mass shooting event followed by calls for gun control or confiscation. Gun people know to ignore the hype and don't budge an inch on the Second Amendment. In fact, we double down on it. Why? Because you will always have more to fear from the government that wants to limit your ability to defend yourself than you will from any random criminal off the street.
I approach the other Amendments to the Bill of Rights the same way. If I hear some scare story about the latest boogeyman followed by calls for doing away with the due process requirements of a fair trial spelled out in the 4th, 5th and 6th Amendments, I know there's more to fear from the loss of those rights than there is from the boogeyman of the day. Frankly, I'm not too worried about the boogeymen. That's at least partly what the 2nd Amendment is for. I'm much more worried about the calls to give up our rights to a fair trial, to due process, to not be tortured, etc. And you should be too.
Frankly Edward, it is you who are naive if you think the solution to crime is giving up any portion of our Bill of Rights so that criminals can be executed more expeditiously. Do you think some authoritarian regime that is more at liberty to use force wherever it sees fit would keep you safer? On the contrary, an authoritarian regime is far more likely to get everyone reading this killed than the individual criminals you're so worried about.
In summary, the most dangerous people of all are in your own government. If they aren't already criminals, many of them would be if they got the chance. And even if you could remove every last criminal from government, it's just human nature that more would take their place. This was the theme of Orwell's Animal Farm.
So no matter the crisis, no matter the boogeymen, never budge an inch on any of your rights. Remember, if you deny even your worst enemy a fair trial or the right to free speech or the right to peaceably assemble, you've lost those rights yourself.
You have no idea at all how I feel you are accurately acute in your perspectives. We should not however forget about islam as the most violent and criminal false religion that ever existed/exists and the threat is has historically proven itself to be. It is a "political/religious movement that is responsible for the murder and enslavement of millions of people throughout history and yes, it has forced its evil governency on many countries. Genghis Khan murdered hundreds of millions and as a danger to Freedom and Justice, is the biggest threat ever at this specific juncture in time.