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[MetalSlimeHunt]

If they go all Conversion by the Sword on the Copts and Liberals time and "encouragement" won't do much good.

[Karnewarrior]

If they think that conversion by force is going to stick in this day and age they're deluded.

Regardless, it looks like 90% of the country actually likes the U.S, at least enough to regret a murder, so I hope this blows over quick. If America goes active again, we need to help Mexico out more than we need to help Africa. Our doorstep needs to be clear before we can save the neighborhood, no?

[Zangi]

I think its along the lines of: The status quo around the Americas is acceptable, leave minimal resources here to keep it from getting worse.   Have most of our resources on countering Chinese influence over Africa, Asia and the Middle East while also trying to look good in the Middle East.  Also gotta keep the cranky Russian Bear in check too.

[MaximumZero]

If they think that conversion by force is going to stick in this day and age they're deluded.

Regardless, it looks like 90% of the country actually likes the U.S, at least enough to regret a murder, so I hope this blows over quick. If America goes active again, we need to help Mexico out more than we need to help Africa. Our doorstep needs to be clear before we can save the neighborhood, no?

I'd prefer that we focus internally, personally. Whatever happened to defending against enemies both foreign and domestic?

[MetalSlimeHunt]

What domestic enemies?

[Frumple]

Economy, education, infrastructure, invention, corruption. The less tangible stuff, barring that last one Obviously bending the meaning of the word to suit, but still.

Their lack or excess, in any case. At least the improvement of the situation regarding all of those and a bit extra is a much better foe than whatever fearmongering bullshit the latest politicos are vomiting all over the airwaves about.

Maybe the (domestic) terrorism or extremist group stuff, but frankly we seem to be doing pretty good on that front, all in all, and especially comparatively (even moreso considering how hard we seem to try to piss so many foreign groups off ). I've been rating that as a comparatively minor concern for like... a while now, personally.

[MaximumZero]

Uh, how about our absurd rate of violent crime? Have you ever walked down a dark side street in a big city?

[kaijyuu]

Hasn't violent crime been steadily dropping for the past few decades?

[MaximumZero]

AFAIK, "violent crime" is just assault. All the other "violent crime" (homicide, sexual assault, hate crimes, etc,) is classified as other things.

Edit: However, that said, at a cursory glance, it appears that kaijyuu is correct. I'd like to state that the decrease could be much faster, though. If not by turning soldiers into police outright, by reallocating some of the war funds to local police and fire.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Hasn't violent crime been steadily dropping for the past few decades?

Yes. Assault and robbery are way down. Rape and murder were never very high but are curving down as well.

Property crimes are also down. This is the most peaceful era in human history.

Anyway, I've outlined the MetalSlimeHunt Act for Reducing Crime In America before:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

I don't think US gun culture and prison recidivism are related. The recidivism rates in the US are as high as they are due to a combination of prisons lacking rehabilitative programs and the extreme social stigma placed upon everyone who has ever been imprisoned, precluding them from any way of making money other than more crime once released. These factors are not helped by prison privatization, which puts the prison system in the hands of a structure who's primary concern is not lowering recidivism but making profit. Furthermore, the War on Drugs has allowed organize crime to flourish in the US, and the social structures provided by these organizations are all some prisoners have ever known and will ever have in prison or out of it. It's a virtually inescapable trap. If you wish to curtail recidivism, don't bother with gun control because that won't make any noticeable dent. All that will do is somewhat change the tools of the trade without stopping the actual trade, and lead to way more arrests as US gun culture goes down fighting. We do not need more arrests. The prisons are already critically overcrowded all the time.

To reduce recidivism rates in the United States of America:
-Nationalize the prisons, because sweet fucking god we are going to get nowhere fast until that happens.
-Legalize all soft recreational drugs and regulate them for commercial sale, decriminalize all hard recreational drugs and put users in rehab instead of behind bars. Watch as organized crime in the US and the world over collapses in a power vacuum as corporations provide cheaper and safer product to soft users and rehabilitation takes away hard users, destroying criminal profit.
-Legalize and regulate prostitution, Nevada or Germany style (doesn't matter, really), to further reduce criminal profit to end another avenue of victimless crime generating new prisoners.
-End Three Strikes Laws in states that have them and re-sentence all prisoners under the third strike to a proper term, releasing them if exceeded. Who the hell thought Three Strikes was a good idea in the first place?
-Provide maximum security prisoners with known gang affiliation identity protection and with sustained good behavior the chance to be transferred to medium security if they renounce gang affiliation and provide information to prison officials. This wouldn't work too well on its own, but with organized crime hurting as it is due to drug legalization by now the gangs will be at their weakest and vulnerable to conversion.
-Cease the practice of the Death Penalty. The death penalty's moratorium never should have ended in the first place so this is just more of a general reform to bring US justice up to speed, but states with the death penalty have higher murder rates than those without, so it might help.
-Cease the practice of Solitary Confinement. Even putting aside ethical issues, solitary confinement is the opposite of reform inducing. People need to be around other humans, even if it is trivial or unpleasant. Putting prisoners in solitary confinement for weeks just makes them vengeful and mentally ill, not a good idea.

There is more than could be done than that, but this addresses the main problems.

[MaximumZero]

Anyway, I've outlined the MetalSlimeHunt Act for Reducing Crime In America before:
-snip-

These steps would go a long way toward making 'murrica a much nicer place.

[Montague]

Yeah, whatever, so the takfiri are out to destroy us, in their global network, with such enthusiasm.

So I wonder, is it the duty of America as a wealthy nation state to uphold human rights in Afghanistan or Africa or wherever?

How should the USA really proceed with this shit?

[scriver]

If that's what passes for moderate in Egypt, they don't have a hope in the world.

Hence why I clarified that they are not moderates, but the "moderate Islamists".

[lemon10]

Yeah, whatever, so the takfiri are out to destroy us, in their global network, with such enthusiasm.

So I wonder, is it the duty of America as a wealthy nation state to uphold human rights in Afghanistan or Africa or wherever?

If we could enforce human rights worldwide without crippling ourselves then yes, then I think we should.
However we can't even directly stabilize some of the more nasty countries, and even trying that is costing hundreds of billions of dollars annually for almost no real improvement,
the same money invested wisely would almost certainly have had more effect in bringing more peace and prosperity to the region.
So no, we shouldn't since we know from experience it doesn't work at all.

[Frumple]

Hasn't violent crime been steadily dropping for the past few decades?

Yes. Assault and robbery are way down. Rape and murder were never very high but are curving down as well.

Property crimes are also down. This is the most peaceful era in human history.

Caveat: Maybe. From what I remember, the wiki stuff doesn't fully factor in the American penal system. Iirc, just for rape, our official numbers were at an all time low... until they actually started counting prison rape. Turned out the numbers were convienently ignoring a many thousands (though I can't remember if it was in the tens or hundreds of thousands.) of victims and even more actual cases. Covered it in the older progressive thread, I think. I really need to bookmark that stuff or somethin'... just as soon as I get access to a proper computer, heh.

Can't really say we've got a very peaceful era going on when something like three quarters of a percent (.734% in 2010, or 734 per 100k) of our population is behind bars, anyway One of the highest rates of incarceration in history! As I recall, we've beaten the soviet gulags in raw numbers (double checked. Yup!), and isn't that one hell of an accomplishment? Better at keeping the prisoners alive, at least. Also either first or second in the world as far as raw numbers go, currently. Whether we're at the top seems to depend on if china's got some huge-ass work camps they're not officially counting as prisons.

But yeah, someone get that damned plan through. We might have to convince someone to kidnap or murder the driving forces behind prison privatization first, though. Get rid of them somehow, anyway.