The storm threatening New Orleans led to a discussion of 2005's Hurricane Katrina wherein I pointed out how much worse government (and foolish reliance on government) made the disaster.
A statist in the conversation tried to paint government employees as good-intentioned but crippled by the bad behavior of the storm's victims.
- If the people had evacuated when told to, government gangs wouldn't have been "forced" to go around kicking in their doors, beating them up, stealing their guns, and kidnapping them to be imprisoned in the Superdome.
- This was a noble thing to do, and the only reason the Superdome turned into a nightmare is that there weren't enough cops there to control the inmates who were forced inside and trapped. Disarming the good guys so as to leave them vulnerable to the bad guys was the right thing to do, under the circumstances, to keep things from getting "worse".
- It was OK to forcibly prevent people (who probably had bad intentions) from crossing that bridge to leave because maybe no one on the other side of the bridge wanted them or could "handle" the numbers of them. Obviously, the people on the bridge were the bad guys. (This is the borderist argument, too.)
No matter what I brought up, the government goons were excused because it was the fault of someone else. If the state and local government (governor, mayor, police) did something bad, it was the fault of the disobedient population (and maybe the feds). If the feds did something bad it was the fault of the disobedient population (and maybe the state and local government). I tested my hypothesis on how the justifications would go from different angles. It was always the same. Government good; people bad.
Because government is staffed by Angels, doncha know. They are better than us disobedient people.
I didn't even get into how the charitable shipments of drinking water and other necessities were turned away by government heroes and other abominable acts of that nature.
Statists will defend their god 'til the bitter end. It can't ever be wrong, and if it looks like it is wrong, it's because of someone else.
This person I was talking with is deeply infected with the superstition of "authority" anyway. I was discovering just how deep it goes. And it's scary.
These are the people who don't believe you have a right to defend yourself from anyone with a badge or a government position, no matter what is being done to you.
These are the people who say "If you don't want a police officer to shoot you, obey immediately. You can take him to court later if you think he's wrong".
These are the people who will report you to the cops for doing something they don't like.
These people are a huge part of the problem in society.
They are "why we can't have nice things"-- at least until we cut them out of the equation and see them for the silly superstitious people they are.
