The Mental Masturbator

Terrorists

It’s always dangerous to create a class of citizens with no rights. Especially when the definition of said class is an ideological one. Then anyone can be labeled as one of those people, and thus be stripped of their rights.

What will you be labeled as a terrorist for? Criticizing the government, protesting the war, or just acting ‘unusual’? We already have a “terrorist watch list” with over 700,000 names on it. Can all those people really be terrorists?

See, the amazing thing about our criminal justice system is that it’s designed to determine weather people are guilty or innocent of crimes using evidence. Why can’t we use that system for suspected terrorists? The government acts as if human rights are an impediment to keeping us safe and achieving justice. But I ask, how can we be safe, and how can we have justice without basic human rights? Bypassing those rights is a means that’s entirely antithetical to its supposed ends. And it’s dangerous. Basic rights protect you when you’ve fallen. They only come into play when being accused of something by the government, but now they disappear when the government accuses you! It’s madness, they might as well not exist.

There are cracks forming on the ground beneath our feet, let’s hope we don’t fall through them into the land where “innocent until proven guilty” becomes “guilty because we say so.”

Update:

Thanks Reddit for providing an example of this type of injustice:

‘Unusual’ Ferry Passengers Identified These two European business men were under suspicious for “unusual” behavior on a ferry. What constitutes unusual behavior? The FBI doesn’t say. Better be careful you’re not acting “unusual” in America. We don’t like “unusual” people around these parts.