IJ wrote:Supermarket tracking my purchases so they can offer me a 50 cent coupon on green peppers: totally fine, since I gave them the right by adopting their savings card.
You mean you actually gave them
real information when you filled out the form for those savings cards?!?!?! I have about 7-9 of them for various supermarkets, pharmacy, and such stores... not a single one of them has any of
my information on it!
Government reading my comments here and blowing up my house in response: Bad!
But that's already happened a few different times in this country. From Idaho to Texas and "sea to shining sea"... It is not and never has been the purpose of government to insure your individual safety, only your rights (which it has failed to do for well over a century). Your individual safety is
your responsibility, not the government's. There is a tremendous appeal from the standpoint of most Americans acting as consumers of the government created and delivered product called
safety. Today, in the U.S. and other western nations, the people generally feel that it is beyond their ability to confront murderers in the act of murder... that it is someone else's responsibility and they should and can only call 911, fall in abject terror, wait and cower, as passive recipients of a service (the government product
safety) they hope and pray will be delivered in a timely fashion. The Founders didn't expect us to be "
safety consumers"; they expected us to be directly involved in the ongoing defense of ourselves, our families, our communities, our country, and our way of life. The Founders were adamantly opposed to a large standing army,
especially one that was better armed than the populace at large. There is no room for discussions about the PATRIOT Act and other legislation being a "slippery slope". The "slippery slope" was started over a century ago and arguably close to two centuries ago. The major push causing the sled of our inalienable Rights to fall off the precipice came in the early 20th century with the acceleration continuing unabated to the present. The Founders, and indeed, most of the people living two centuries ago, would be appalled at the thought of government doing to our freedoms, liberties, and rights what our government has done in the past 20 years, as well as the past 100 years. Remember, this country was founded because of the egregious violations by a government of the freedoms, liberties, and rights of it's people. Reading the Declaration of Independence with an eye towards where "
We, the People" currently stand under the control of our own government, one can only realize why Jefferson stated so emphatically that the tree of liberty must be watered from time to time with the blood of tyrants and patriots. In fact, Jefferson felt that... oh, about every 20 years or so, there should be another revolution! As Ben Franklin stated so eloquently, "Those who would give up a Liberty for more Security deserve neither!" This isn't about privacy, it's about Control. Someone who knows everything about you can control everything about you.
So what is the specific problem?
If you understand the sentiments of the Founders, you don't need to ask that question... if you don't, then it simply can't be answered in a single post or single thread.