Is Wiki Leaks Terrorism or just Prostitution?
Listening to Hoekstra being interviewed on Fox News this morning (30 Nov 2010) about the latest Wiki Leaks publication provides an insight into the strange world of politician thinking.
Hoekstra seems to be saying, in his Wiki Leaks comments, that since Wiki Leaks didn’t steal the data we can’t prosecute them for using the data. This is exactly like saying that since terrorists didn’t make the explosives we can’t prosecute them for using the explosives. Or, since the murder didn’t make the gun we can't prosecute him for killing his victim.
This “logic” can only be the product of a liberal or law education.
In the real world, that most of us live in, we’re less interested in the supplier than we are in the user. We don’t believe that the firearm manufacturer is responsible for the bank robbery. We don’t blame Ford for drunk driver deaths. We don’t even blame the brewer for bar fights.
Perhaps our national approach to “The War on Drugs” has corrupted our thinking process. In The War on Drugs we prosecute the drug supplier instead of the user. Well, we do prosecute Black users and poor users, but most of the effort is on shutting down the suppliers. Often users are seen as victims.
Perhaps our approach to stamping out prostitution is another example of a corrupted thinking process. Again the supplier is prosecuted while the user is, usually, not prosecuted.
This corrupted thinking is a product of prosecuting victimless “crimes”. Drug users are hurting themselves and, unless they commit crimes to acquire funding for their drug use, rarely hurt others. Johns even more rarely hurt others except by spreading disease.
In both of these examples, government efforts would be best spent on treatment, education, and monitoring rather than on user incarceration.
Politicians are not, however, likely to understand the difference between, say, prostitution and terrorism. They are far less interested in the John than in the prostitute. They are far less interested in the publisher than in the leaker. This, despite that fact, that the leak without publication is harmless. Only the publisher has the power to harm us. Only the publisher actually did harm us. But that fact is ignored or not understood or denied.
It’s time to replace our liberal educated “over thinker” politicians with people educated by the everyday, real world.
Hoekstra seems to be saying, in his Wiki Leaks comments, that since Wiki Leaks didn’t steal the data we can’t prosecute them for using the data. This is exactly like saying that since terrorists didn’t make the explosives we can’t prosecute them for using the explosives. Or, since the murder didn’t make the gun we can't prosecute him for killing his victim.
This “logic” can only be the product of a liberal or law education.
In the real world, that most of us live in, we’re less interested in the supplier than we are in the user. We don’t believe that the firearm manufacturer is responsible for the bank robbery. We don’t blame Ford for drunk driver deaths. We don’t even blame the brewer for bar fights.
Perhaps our national approach to “The War on Drugs” has corrupted our thinking process. In The War on Drugs we prosecute the drug supplier instead of the user. Well, we do prosecute Black users and poor users, but most of the effort is on shutting down the suppliers. Often users are seen as victims.
Perhaps our approach to stamping out prostitution is another example of a corrupted thinking process. Again the supplier is prosecuted while the user is, usually, not prosecuted.
This corrupted thinking is a product of prosecuting victimless “crimes”. Drug users are hurting themselves and, unless they commit crimes to acquire funding for their drug use, rarely hurt others. Johns even more rarely hurt others except by spreading disease.
In both of these examples, government efforts would be best spent on treatment, education, and monitoring rather than on user incarceration.
Politicians are not, however, likely to understand the difference between, say, prostitution and terrorism. They are far less interested in the John than in the prostitute. They are far less interested in the publisher than in the leaker. This, despite that fact, that the leak without publication is harmless. Only the publisher has the power to harm us. Only the publisher actually did harm us. But that fact is ignored or not understood or denied.
It’s time to replace our liberal educated “over thinker” politicians with people educated by the everyday, real world.
posted by PsySciGuy at 11:26 AM
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