HomeUploadUpload DirectHotlinkRandomAbouttheme toggle
Expand

What Fear Does to Our Freedom

Views:997
@ReasonVids

COVID-19 and 9/11 both created opportunities to restrict our liberties in the name of keeping us safe.
------------------
Subscribe to our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/ReasonTV?subconfirmation=1
Like us on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Reason.Magazine/
Follow us on Twitter: https://twitter.com/reason

Reason is the planet's leading source of news, politics, and culture from a libertarian perspective. Go to reason.com for a point of view you won't get from legacy media and old left-right opinion magazines.
----------------
The terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, continue to cast a long shadow over American life. Twenty years later, at home and abroad, the world is more chaotic and less free because the U.S. government exploited our fear to erode our liberties and launch two disastrous foreign wars.

Today's defining crisis, the COVID-19 pandemic, has created another opportunity to restrict freedom in the name of protecting us from a fearsome enemy—in this case, a viral infection. 

So what will the world look like 20 years from now?

September 11 led to illegal detentions, torture, routine, warrantless spying, two wars, and an explosion of government spending.

COVID-19 has brought unconstitutional restrictions on travel between states and cities; vaccine and mask mandates; lockdown orders that closed businesses, schools, and churches; restrictions on dining in restaurants and exercising in gyms; and an explosion of government spending.

Early in the pandemic, President Donald Trump invoked the Defense Production Act to compel businesses to produce ventilators and other supplies for combatting the virus when the federal government didn't like the terms offered. 

After 9/11, Congress created the Department of Homeland Security and nationalized airport security by creating the Transportation Security Administration. The federal government also conscripted communications companies into monitoring customers, even going so far as to install NSA equipment in AT&T facilities.

Politicians seem to understand instinctively that a crisis is an opening to push freedom-eroding policies that previously were too hard to get the public to accept—such as the chaotic war in Iraq. Iraq had nothing to do with the attacks, but regime change there had been on the wish list of senior Bush administration officials long before 9/11, and the terrorist attack created an opening.

For then-Sen. Joe Biden, the 9/11 attacks provided an opening to railroad through Congress a bill that he had drafted following the Oklahoma City bombing but couldn't get passed. It became the PATRIOT Act.

Twenty years later, even while correctly predicting that the Supreme Court would overturn the order, President Biden extended an emergency federal eviction moratorium that was always based on faulty science, violating the property rights of millions of landlords.

September 11 reminds us that drastic policies and accumulated authority have a nasty way of lingering long after the emergencies for which they were invoked have come to an end.

It created an opportunity for new government spending on initiatives that had little to do with keeping Americans safe. Congress diverted billions of dollars to often wasteful "homeland security" spending, including counterterrorism funding for small towns hundreds of miles from major American cities.

As 60 Minutes reported in 2005, the money was spent on Segways, air-conditioned garbage trucks, bulletproof dog vests, transporting lawnmowers to lawnmower races, and decontamination units nobody knew how to operate. 

Today's proverbial "crisis" that's "too good to waste" has led to trillions in passed or proposed spending for so-called "recovery" and "infrastructure." Somehow, that's been defined to include internet access, child tax credits, electric-vehicle charging stations, corporate subsidies, and "buy American" mandates. Everything, it turns out, is a necessary expense for fighting COVID-19 when politicians see opportunity. 

Twenty years from now, we may well still be living with crippling debt, "emergency" government programs that somehow were never phased out, and pandemic-fueled restrictions on our daily lives. 

Or we'll look back at the pandemic as a turning point, in which Americans rediscovered their ability to move past a crisis and reclaim control over their own lives—if we can break the pattern set after 9/11.

The 20-year anniversary of September 11, 2001, is a day for mourning the loss of the nearly 3,000 people who perished tragically on that horrific day—and to dwell on how political leaders used fear to steal our liberties. Because history is already repeating itself in ways that we, and our kids, will live to regret.

Written and narrated by J.D. Tuccille. Edited by John Osterhoudt. Additional graphics by Isaac Reese and Lex Villena.

Photos: PETER MORGAN/REUTERS/Newscom; PETER MORGAN/REUTERS/Newscom; Andrea Booher/ZUMA Press/Newscom; full credits at reason.com

libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
    Thumbnail for Bitcoin: 'A Weapon for Us To Fight Oppression'5:56
    Bitcoin: 'A Weapon for Us To Fight Oppression'
    ReasonVids
    894 views
    Thumbnail for "Do You Have It Up Your Ass?": Drug Warriors in New Mexico Go Too Far4:30
    "Do You Have It Up Your Ass?": Drug Warriors in New Mexico Go Too Far
    ReasonVids
    3618 views
    Thumbnail for Liberty Fund's Chris Talley on Freedom, Dialogue, and Ama-gi Tattoos3:37
    Liberty Fund's Chris Talley on Freedom, Dialogue, and Ama-gi Tattoos
    ReasonVids
    769 views
    Thumbnail for Environmentalists Would Buy the Land They Want to Protect, If The Government Allowed It4:38
    Environmentalists Would Buy the Land They Want to Protect, If The Government Allowed It
    ReasonVids
    875 views
    Thumbnail for How Can We Solve the Race Problem?12:07
    How Can We Solve the Race Problem?
    AmericanRenaissance
    1554 views
    Thumbnail for The Israeli Lobby - A Danger To The World Documentary51:54
    The Israeli Lobby - A Danger To The World Documentary
    AOUisgay
    533 views
    Thumbnail for Chinaman wants to go home to his apartment0:40
    Chinaman wants to go home to his apartment
    voatcatbox
    499 views
    Thumbnail for Convenience Store Udon | Bento Club0:36
    Convenience Store Udon | Bento Club
    invidious
    85 views
    Thumbnail for Gov't to makeup artists:  Put down the blush, or we'll shut you DOWN2:51
    Gov't to makeup artists: Put down the blush, or we'll shut you DOWN
    IJvids
    870 views
    Thumbnail for Gentleman ' Deep ' Radio | Deep House • Chillout • Lounge Music 24/7 | Gentleman1:00
    Gentleman ' Deep ' Radio | Deep House • Chillout • Lounge Music 24/7 | Gentleman
    invidious
    356 views
    Thumbnail for Ancient Indian Science - Hidden In Temples? 🛕 | PraveenMohan1:34
    Ancient Indian Science - Hidden In Temples? 🛕 | PraveenMohan
    invidious
    117 views
    Thumbnail for What A Democratic Socialist Convention Is Like3:41
    What A Democratic Socialist Convention Is Like
    AOU
    1134 views
    Thumbnail for Nevada Families Fight ACLU's Attempt to Destroy School Choice6:53
    Nevada Families Fight ACLU's Attempt to Destroy School Choice
    ReasonVids
    906 views
    Thumbnail for Libertarians Without Borders: An Interview with Tom Palmer about the Arab Spring9:15
    Libertarians Without Borders: An Interview with Tom Palmer about the Arab Spring
    ReasonVids
    685 views
    Thumbnail for Q&A with Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate Jim Gray6:04
    Q&A with Libertarian Vice Presidential Candidate Jim Gray
    ReasonVids
    895 views
    Thumbnail for RWN Protest Southport Atrocity Across UK; Police Accused Of "Two Tiered Policing" For Response0:34
    RWN Protest Southport Atrocity Across UK; Police Accused Of "Two Tiered Policing" For Response
    bestofupgoat
    202 views
    Thumbnail for Thanks For Supporting Reason's Webathon 20092:01
    Thanks For Supporting Reason's Webathon 2009
    ReasonVids
    789 views
    Thumbnail for When The State Comes For Your Kids | Ride and Roast28:58
    When The State Comes For Your Kids | Ride and Roast
    Terrence Popp
    1190 views
    Thumbnail for Hitler recalls the 9th of November Revolution.11:22
    Hitler recalls the 9th of November Revolution.
    bestofupgoat
    434 views
    Thumbnail for Roe v Wade: The End of an Error? | Grunt Speak Shorts22:14
    Roe v Wade: The End of an Error? | Grunt Speak Shorts
    Terrence Popp
    733 views
    Thumbnail for We can jump and we can run4:13
    We can jump and we can run
    bestofupgoat
    467 views
    Thumbnail for ÚLTIMA HORA: ISRAEL ATACADA TRAS EL BOMBARDEO A YEMEN | RUSIA ACORRALA A LA OTAN Y UCRANIA | Miguel Ruiz Calvo1:15:00
    ÚLTIMA HORA: ISRAEL ATACADA TRAS EL BOMBARDEO A YEMEN | RUSIA ACORRALA A LA OTAN Y UCRANIA | Miguel Ruiz Calvo
    invidious
    226 views
    Thumbnail for 【0422直播】台灣空前團結 扁重批賴清德清算 廖筱君轟可恥 黑道死亡威脅志工 反衝高罷免票數 / 最後一哩路 平凡人翻轉政治 罷免志工燃起台灣希望火種 | 筱君台灣PLUS37:26
    【0422直播】台灣空前團結 扁重批賴清德清算 廖筱君轟可恥 黑道死亡威脅志工 反衝高罷免票數 / 最後一哩路 平凡人翻轉政治 罷免志工燃起台灣希望火種 | 筱君台灣PLUS
    invidious
    81 views
    Thumbnail for WHY PLAY ROULETTE WHEN YOU CAN BE ROULETTE?0:11
    WHY PLAY ROULETTE WHEN YOU CAN BE ROULETTE?
    AOUisgay
    429 views

points

Permalink
Reply
libertarian
,
reason magazine
,
reason.com
,
reason.tv
,
reasontv
TOS  •  Add Keywords  •  Donate  •   Analytics  •   DMCA  •   Puzzle