There's been a lot of speculation about Evil Totalitarian Dictatorships lately. I thought I'd cut through all the uncertainty and hype, and clear up a few things.
There are two very simple rules, for figuring out if you live in an Evil Totalitarian Dictatorship.
Rule 1: The only people who say you're not living in an Evil Totalitarian Dictatorship are the ones who are afraid of the secret police, or who suspect you of being a govenrment informer. This rule covers pretty much everyone you will ever get a chance to ask about Evil Totalitarian Dictatorships.
Rule 2: Nobody says you are living in an Evil Totalitarian Dictatorship, because everybody stupid enough to mouth off like that has already been disappeared. You remember that day quite well. You sat trembling in your living room, hoping against hope that there'd be no knock on your door, while the Secret Police worked their way up and down your street.
Put it another way: If the U.S. were the Evil Totalitarian Dictatorship alleged at Democratic Underground, that particular group of dissidents would be truly underground--mass graves or well hidden, but underground one way or another. And that would be after their ISP was shut down, and the ISP workers and most of the DU membership had been shipped off to death camps in Canada.
Oh, and we would've already invaded and conquered Canada, for the express purpose of building death camps.
Bottom line: if you lived in an Evil Totalitarian DIctatorship, you'd fucking well know it, and so would everyone else. The debate wouldn't be about whether or not the Dictatorship really exists--that would be a self-evident fact. The debate would be about whether to collaborate, resist, or defect. And nobody would dare have that debate in public. Or even in private.
At this point, about the best argument you could possibly make would be, "It isn't an Evil Totalitarian Dictatorhip now, but it will be soon!" To which I reply: Want to bet?
Coming soon in this space: DU Prophecy Watch!
Stay tuned!