Whenever I hear the right-wingers complaining about tyranny in Obama's America, I have to shake my head, because unlike the fantasies of victimization engaged in by the Oath Keepers and their ilk, there is actual despotism in the world. Take Thailand, where the army has crushed a peasant insurgency and is now going after the group's financiers:
[Prayudh Mahagitsiri], along with 151 other businessmen, politicians, lawyers and other alleged financiers of "red shirt" protests, has seen his bank accounts frozen and been ordered to report details of all financial transactions since September to authorities. The aim, said an emergency decree signed by Gen. Anupong Paochinda, is to root out threats to "national security and the safety of citizens" and "get rid of this problem effectively and immediately." ... The government has given no evidence of misbehavior by Prayudh other than a long association with [Former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra].
While the financial and political lines of the clash in Thailand are muddled, to say the least, anytime you have the government seizing the assets of private citizens for political views (after putting down bloody protests the week before), then you can talk about tyranny. People who use that word in the United States are disrespecting the people who actually live with the specter of capricious, unchecked authority.
-- Tim Fernholz
