It's Not Oppression, It's Cowardice

There are realities of modern America that never get any airtime. Not because of some spooky conspiracy to keep the prols uninformed, but just because said realities are so embarrassing no one with a salary wants to really talk about it.

Case in point - How much of a gutless putz do you have to be to hose down some harmless students with pepper spray?

If you haven't watched it yet, it's worth seeing. That's some serious riot spray he's packing and he's just walking up and down the line while holding the trigger. And after you get over your outrage, here's another question to ponder -

Why didn't they just manhandle the kids? They weren't moving, weren't resisting, you could've flex-cuffed them all and marched 'em to the waiting paddy wagons in about half the time of this spray an' pray.

That would be oppressive too of course. The whole point of police is oppression - which I'm gonna say, and it won't win me any friends, is a good thing. "Freedom" as it's preached in America is a nebulous, feel-good concept that usually only means "freedom to do what I want and the hell with you." Absolute freedom - no controls but individual judgement - is a delusional prospect and would only lead to disaster. So we trade a little oppression from government institutions for a little security from the free exercise of our neighbor's desires which could very well include theft, murder, rape, and LARPing.

This however was pure cowardice. The UC rent-a-cops already have a monopoly on physical force in this picture, but that's never enough for cowards. So they go out of their way to reduce their targets to terrified, incapacitated heaps. Otherwise, they might get mouthy or something when they're arrested.

And this, sheer cowardice even when holding absolute power, is exactly one of those ugly realities I mentioned at the start. I direct your attention to those eight years under Bush - most powerful empire in human history, and he chooses to go to war with emaciated wimp Iraq. Iran has definite connections with Hezbollah, North Korea has had nuclear weapons for nearly a decade, Iraq... couldn't fight back. And it's telling that when the insurgency broke out, the approval numbers went into a tailspin among the same crowd who cheered it on in the first place.

Americans are cowards, "conservative" Americans even more so. I could write a whole damn book about the many GOP wimp-outs from Reagen to Bush Jooner, not to mention the huffy Tea Party dweebs who bitch and moan if anyone points out the truth that they're a bunch of racist suckers. In fact, I think I will write a book! I'd title it Pussy Nation but that might be mistaken for something fun.