(08-07-2023, 12:02 PM)NYC4jags Wrote:

(08-07-2023, 11:28 AM)flsprtsgod Wrote: For the record, I did not vote for Trump. Nevertheless, I see very clearly the centralization of power in this country into the federal government, so yes, progressive thought is winning and those so called "antiquated ideals" including federalism, independence, self reliance, and autonomy are being reduced to just a memory (and a despised one at that). This is not societal evolution, it's devolution back to the time before the enlightenment when one class was to rule while all the rest exist for their pleasure and support. It's not conspiracy theory to see how our government has been subverted; first they made you "educated", then they made you dependent, now they make you subservient. We get it, you love Big Brother; you just have to accept that many of us will not ever do so.

The bold is bluster with no substance. 

Illustrate to me how this is happening right now, practically, in our society. 

Prove to me this is happening with something besides "I don't like the messaging in the barbie movie." 

How am I more beholden to Big Brother right now than I was 20 years ago? Prove it.

Education: https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/...20science.

Key takeaway: The USA rates 38th out of 71 in math and 24th in science. American "education" lags behind much of the developed world because our Society depends on an educated and moral people.

Welfare: https://www.urban.org/policy-centers/cro...s%20period.

Key takeaway: US spending on welfare increased by 437% from 1977 to 2020 outpacing education, roads, corrections, and a host of other public services. Bread and circuses man, bread and circuses.

Big Brother: https://www.econlib.org/library/Enc/Gove...rowth.html

Key takeaway: "As the table shows, government expenditures have grown enormously during the past century. As late as 1913, for example, even in a group of seventeen economically advanced countries, government expenditures averaged only about 13 percent of GDP. At most (in Austria, France, and Italy), they came to just 17 percent, and for the United States they were less than 8 percent. Taxation and government employment were at similarly low levels. In contrast, by 1996, government expenditures in the same seventeen countries had reached nearly 46 percent of GDP. Sweden’s were the highest, at more than 64 percent, and U.S. expenditures reached more than 32 percent.1 Taxation, government employment, and other aspects of government had expanded similarly. Moreover, governments have vastly increased the scope and societal penetration of their regulation in ways that spending measures do not reflect. In the United States, for example, private individuals and firms spend hundreds of billions of dollars each year to comply with government regulations aimed at reducing air and water pollution, lowering health risks, and eliminating workplace discrimination against women and members of various ethnic and other protected groups."

You are more beholden to the feds today than at any time in history absent any period of conscription.

So yeah, believe what you like in your cocoon, but these illustrations don't even look at the expansion of criminal law, the rise of the regulatory state, or the power and influence of lobbyists, international corporations, and dark money to leverage federal power against you. Nope, the simple, practical facts are that you are more and more owned by an all-consuming federal leviathan that will continue to spend and grow and tax until there's nothing left of you and me. But hey, you've got "free and fair" elections that are above reproach! Lol.

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