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Edited by Mrph1 on Jul 29th 2024 at 3:09:00 PM
What this means is that Weapon X isn't accountable to the Canadian government, but rather a small subsection of the Canadian government marked "Top Secret" and it is this part of the government which isn't accountable to the Canadian public because they have no idea about it. This isn't democratic, because democracy requires openness and transparency.
Once again: neither the US nor Canada are democracies! Especially not Canada, which still has a queen! (Technically, it's a "federal parliamentary representative democracy under constitutional monarchy.")
edited 28th Jun '16 8:46:31 AM by alliterator
The entire point of a representative system is so people can, ya know, represent you. If the person didn't run on The Kidnap, Torture and Human Experimentation Platform, they aren't doing their job.
note: I'm not a fan of democracy. Democracy Is Bad is one of the best tropes we have. What I hate is dishonesty. If the government insists on doing whatever the fuck it wants, fine. But don't lie and call yourself a representative government. You are an oligarchy perhaps or maybe some sort of military dictatorship.
edited 28th Jun '16 8:47:14 AM by Nikkolas
Doesn't Canada have a Parliament?
Like, having a Queen doesn't mean you're not democratic. England has a queen. She's responsible for f*ck-all, but she exists. It's their Parliament that determines national policy, however.
And the transitive property doesn't really apply here. Secret ops are just part of a government. Participating in government means acknowledging that you will not be briefed on everything that happens. Voting for a candidate means voting for someone you trust to make the right choices on the things you're not briefed on.
Think of it like nuclear weapons. You, the individual, will never be asked whether you think the country should deploy a nuclear weapon. Your ability to influence that choice is limited to voting for a candidate who shares your opinion on nuclear weapons. When you vote for Nuke-Happy Gandhi or Reasonable Ted, that is how you make your voice heard in advance of the decision.
That's the point of political debates and speeches. They let people know who the people they're voting for are and where they stand on a wide variety of issues, so that people can vote for the person who best represents their ideology and is most likely to make the choices they would want to see made on the countless issues affecting the nation.
Accountability is done link by link in the chain of command. The public voting for the officials they want to see in office is only one of those links.
edited 28th Jun '16 8:57:05 AM by TobiasDrake
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Just because nobody's asking questions about specific individual instances, doesn't mean nobody's asking questions about the circumstances that resulted in those instances.
"Governor Bromley, what's your opinion on the mutant crisis?"
"I think these mutants are extremely dangerous and there needs to be some kind of government response. Like, there's a guy who can shoot lasers from his eyes. Do you realize how dangerous that is? We need to get on top of this situation. We need a way to control these people. If I'm elected as a federal senator, I will ensure that actions are taken to keep our people, REAL people, safe from the threat posed by these mutants."
And then millions of people vote for him. Because Weapon X didn't just spring up from the ground. It's a product of the public's hate and fear of mutants filtered through the elected officials who rose to power on the "F*ck mutants" platform.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.Not as much as you might think. "Politicians lie and are just serving the interests of the businesses that bought them" is certainly a thing that happens here and there, but it's of little actual merit to the political process. It's more of a scapegoat for anti-political people to throw up their arms and go, "All politicians are the same, the system is rigged, your choices are a lie, and there is no such thing as democracy!"
In essence, it's a convenient excuse for giving up. And it's a comforting one because if everything bad that politicians ever do is because they're evil, corrupt dictators who were paid off to do it, then you don't have to face the ugly possibility that maybe the worst face of politics is a reflection of the worst face of the people they represent. That maybe this happened, not because he was secretly a Literal Nazi planning to put everyone in concentration camps, but because he was outright saying he was going to do this for months and people voted for him because they liked the cut of his jib.
At a time when we are actively considering electing Donald Trump, a man whose hate rhetoric towards Muslims, Mexicans, and women has been met by roaring applause, as President of the United States, is it really so hard to accept that the widespread fear and hatred of mutants is responsible for the omnipresence of government officials ready and willing to oppress mutants?
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.That would be true in ANY electoral system, and also pretty much impossible to do anything about. You can't force someone to tell the truth, so you have to decide which of the two-faced shysters in the running you like most/dislike least. It's at the very least better than dictatorships - compare the imperfect Western version of democracy to somewhere like North Korea for the difference.
"These 'no-nonsense' solutions of yours just don't hold water in a complex world of jet-powered apes and time travel."Seriously, watch one of Trump's speeches sometime and imagine he's talking about mutants. That should explain everything about the frequent mutant oppression.
- Senator Kelly: They're coming here and they're bringing their murderers and their rapists. They're getting in these big explosive battles that are killing people all the time and then where do they go? Nuh uh. Not good. NOT good. So we need to put a stop to it. We need to stop it, we need to shut it down until we can figure out what the hell is going on!
Or maybe they're just pragmatic. I don't recall the Weapon X scientists having mutants, they just recognized what a glorious potential weapon source they could tap into.
No one votes their elected officials in to do secret projects. That's why they are secret projects. No one voted for Iran-Contra. Moreover, as it happens so often in representative government, our elected officials are mostly just pushed along with the tide. Whatever was being done before they got into office will continue being done, no matter how they feel about it.
Yes, it is certainly true that the public must take responsibility for the actions of elected officials. As Plato observed, taking the insights of people who have no idea how a government works in order to run a government is pretty idiotic so no wonder the whole thing is a farce. But again, this whole discussion started because there is absolutely no accountability in Marvel. Weapon X? SHIELD brainwashing camps? All fine, all dandy and not a goddam thing any normal person can do about it.
Here's all the info you really need about Weapon X. http://marvel.com/universe/Weapon_X
I'm reminded so hard of what Xavier said in X-Men Evolution when discussing Operation: Rebirth.
Xavier: Perhaps you better tell me exactly what Operation Rebirth was.
Wolverine: Early attempt at genetic engineering; crude but powerful. The idea was to create supersoldiers for World War II.
Xavier: A "Master Race?"
Wolverine: These were the good guys, they didn't mean it like that.
Xavier: Yes,they never do.
And seeing how Rebirth led to Weapon X, Chuck was spot-on.
Ah, I knew our good ol' buddy ol' pal Sublime was involved.
Also, I thought you meant Chuck Austen and I was taken aback for a second.
Forever liveblogging the AvengersYou know, having heard that they just decided to rewrite Wong to be less racist, rather than ditch him altogether? Shit, I already probably know the real answer (hint: it begins with CC and ends with P), but it makes one wonder why they didn't just do the same thing with the Ancient One and avoid all this controversy. And since Wong is a much more prominent figure in the Strange mythos than the Ancient One, it's unlikely to be as simple as "we hate Asian actors and want to draw audiences in with white ones" either.
Set photos of the Spider-suit
. Virtually the same as the Civil War one but with some more lines.
That pesky Tibet problem again.
edited 28th Jun '16 2:45:21 PM by comicwriter
“I Can’t Trust My Own Mind”: How the Marvel Cinematic Universe Engages with Trauma
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Not really, Spider-man's villains run the gamut from being physically stronger to simply being better in a different area. He's fought Vultures for years because even with all his abilities it's difficult to contend with someone who can fly.
The Shocker is just a guy in a padded suit but his vibrators are enough to keep Spider-man from getting close enough to be physical.
80% Kraven the Hunter is just some dude with enough skill and pre-planning to give Spider-man trouble. Mysterio is just a squishy guy with unusually good special effects.
Physical threat is the least interesting thing about fights with Spider-man. Having someone in the same weight class would boring and pretty much just watching a scaled down version of the Superman/Zod fight or one of the many less-inspired fights in Dragonball Z
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There is as much oversight as any other military secret op. "Oversight" does not mean "The individual citizen gets to weigh in on this." Weapon X is accountable to the Canadian government, not the Canadian public. The Canadian government is what is accountable to the Canadian public. You're trying to skip the middleman and say Weapon X should be accountable to the public. Like, every individual should receive a monthly pamphlet on every secret operation that the public isn't supposed to know about.
That is not how government works.
My Tumblr. Currently side-by-side liveblogging Digimon Adventure, sub vs dub.