Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by debt 4316 days ago
People seem to forget that most of our tax dollars goes towards defense. Governments(particularly ours(USA)) are exceedingly good at defense and murder.

I understand we're "taking care of the bad guys", but we're still murdering them when we drop a 500 lbs pound, laser-guided bomb on them. You can call it defense or protection or whatever you want, we still have to murder them(in the most extreme cases) to achieve the goal.

We have entire apparatus set up to accomplish that end goal. We call them departments or agencies or branches. Department of Defense, National Security Agency, Marines, Army, National Guard, etc.

All to murder people. So the idea that somehow you as a protestor are going to overcome all that apparatus by throwing a molotov cocktail at a police officer(again, the terminus in a very large murder apparatus) is so appallingly stupid that I can't help but side with apparatus itself.

Governments have a monopoly on violence, you will lose. You need to find a different way to communicate your anger.

So if a cop says "I'm a cop. If you don't want to get hurt, don't challenge me." he's right. Not morally, but logically.

Also lest you forget, "Never talk to police": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6wXkI4t7nuc

2 comments

> People seem to forget that most of our tax dollars goes towards defense.

23% of the US budget is defense, intelligence, and other protection. It's not even the single largest category.

I mean the definition of "murder" is unlawful killing. If someone kills someone in legal self defense, it is not murder.
Just because you legally killed someone doesn't mean it's not murder. Did Hitler murder lots of Jews? Did Stalin murder enemies of the people? Did Anglo-settlers in the USA murder countless slaves and native peoples?
"Murder is the unlawful killing, with malice aforethought, of another human, and generally this premeditated state of mind distinguishes murder from other forms of unlawful homicide (such as manslaughter)." -- wikipedia

The question of whether a set of laws is legitimate is another question.

Nations have different laws. We call it defense they call it murder.