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Notes -
I'd say the most you can argue is that it was both. It seams clear as day that since governments stopped being afraid of it's citizens, they implemented programs of unprecedented surveillance, social control, manipulation of information, and political oppression. The UK (and the rest of Europe to a lesser extent), which is far more advanced in this process than the US is happily locking people up for shitposting, as they let out rapists and murderers.
A tyranny of the majority also being possible, and guns possibly enabling it, is not the own that you think it is.
I think that’s proof they are worried about the citizens. They’re not scared of rapists or murderers, really, any more than they’re scared of sharks. They’re worried about allowing dissent to foster among the working class, so they stamp on it.
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