United States | News & Politics

You no longer have those rights when people go to jail for what has historically been considered protected speech.

DOGE and the Trump administration are openly ignoring court orders. That potentially means no one has ANY rights unless the administration decides to honor them.

So there's a common belief about the constitution and bill of rights et cetera, that I think is a key mis-framing of what the founders actually said.

What they said about structures of government, revolution, liberty, and so on, usually gets interpreted as a prescription for government: You're permitted to make laws, but certain laws are off limits, you're not allowed to make those laws. What they actually said was something different: They said people are going to talk to each other. They're going to practice their religion. If a governmental body arises which is trying to tell them not to do those things, it's revealed itself as a bunch of dangerous crap, not a government, and it's the duty of the people to overthrow it and replace it with something better. Or else, they will deserve the unjust laws.

"Endowed by their creator" and "inalienable" and whatnot. It's got nothing to do with what the government is "allowed" to do, or not. They took a lot more pragmatic, old-world view of things.

When you use them and get arrested for it.

Now.