I'll simply say this, in this country equal protection under the law is not practiced as much as it is bandied about, and the worst example of that is the disproportionate sentencing handed to ,,,,,,We are more feudal than free.
Agree that equal protection isn't equally distributed
But you're making a mistake by leaning on the statistical disparity of the prison population
I think we should all be able to agree that if ANYONE is imprisoned wrongly -- that's unjust and heinous and it should be corrected as quickly as possible
But - we KNOW there's a correlation between the breakdown of the family and a) poverty and b) increased likelihood of children being exposed to or adopting criminal behavior
there are plenty of sociology papers / peer reviewed literature that supports this - and it passes the common sense test as well
Where the family structure has eroded or been destroyed - you'll find more risk for crime, more poverty and more children growing up in a cycle that's hard to break free of
Black families have eroded and/or been damaged at a higher rate than any other racial group
and THAT - more than anything else IMO - has lead to a higher prevalence in crime rate among black / AA's in the USA
and that's one of the reasons why your prison population seems to present a statistical disparity......
having said that -- the breakdown of latino and caucasian families is catching up
everywhere I've looked for reliable statistics - you'll always find Asian families remaining in tact better than others
and that should lead to a conversation about who's attacking the family structure and why......
has any group (political or otherwise) ever OPENLY STATED that one of their goals is to DESTROY the family structure?
(hint --
yes)
it's really NOT a factor of "race" in this case
it's a factor of families falling apart more than anything else
are there other factors? yes
but you can't overlook that major driver of events
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as for the socialism bit -- you haven't SEEN Marxist Socialism yet
we've not experienced what that's like
you can read dissident Soviet authors to get it straight from the horses mouth .... and it's hellish
worse than what the Nazi's did
I can entertain a rational conversation about pre-Marx / French socialism to some extent......but that's a whole different set of rules
If you're in favor of "Socialism" - you REALLY need to know whether or not you're supporting someone who falls on the Marxist side of the ideology or not..........
If you're just talking about regulation in a different way .... taxation at higher rates here or there to try and bring 'economic justice' (or something like it)......then that's not Marx & I don't really have a problem with you
(doesn't mean we'll agree of course)
I can post more later to support the distinction I'm making here if you're interested
If not - that's cool too
![[laughing]](http://l.yimg.com/j/assets/img/emoticons/classic/laugh.r191677.gif "Laughing [laughing]")
I just don't have the same fatalistic take on socialism as you. Like I said earlier the USA has had socialist programs integrated in its government for years and did not suffer for it, certainly throwing large dollar bills at un-needed wars was far worse for us than the New Deal. I also would point to the european countries that are a mixture of regulated capitalism alongside regulated socialist programs that have made for the most content nations on earth presently. To me after watching what has taken place south of our border for 5 decades and studying several decades before that right wing fascism is the main threat today, even the breakdown of terrorists bears that out.
