Do you think the government is hiding something?

I certainly believe it condones torture whilst lying about it.

Yes; they hide my remote from time to time just to spite me.

I certainly believe it condones torture whilst lying about it.

But we know about that. And people not only admit it, they advocate it.

The short answer to your question is “Yes. The government is hiding many things.” For better or worse, competitive advantage is largely based on keeping secrets. Some secrets are kept in the open and some are kept by linking them with discreditable ideas or sinking them in a sea of discredited thoughts (or by passing them off as fiction). Some are just old fashioned kept secrets.

I’ve tried on just about every conspiracy theory one could think of for size. I keep a good number in my closet, but I’ve found the theories themselves matter less than the extent to which one believes they are true and how one decides to go about living as a result of those beliefs.

@jaytkay Well there is plenty of stupid out there, what can I tell you?

I believe that they don’t tell us everything. Do I believe the conspiracy theories that I’ve heard? No.

They hide alot of things.

@Mom2BDec2010 But that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Not every time, anyway.

@Dutchess_III I agree, wouldn’t want everyone freaking out over something and start something even worse.

@Mom2BDec2010 I think most people on Fluther could handle the Whole Truth….but…have you ever looked at comment sites on various web pages? This website (which cracks me up!) is a great example. It’s a totally satirical website like The Onion. They write the wackiest stuff, but since it’s written in a serious tone there are those who freak out, actually believing that they’re reading the truth…solely based on the tone of the articles. I found an article where they wrote that Condolizza Rice brought LA Crips to negotiate Middle East Peace….it’s hilarious, but look at some of the comments! You just gotta laugh. But some people think it’s true…and those are the ones who can’t really handle the truth.

The Government is the people who are in charge of administering every issue that comes up in the country that you and I don’t want to or can’t do alone. There is no such entity as The Government that hides things. There are many administrators and agents who keep their workings secret for various reasons, and vast conspiratists use little bits of fact to bolster their nonsense.

@YARNLADY, you are kidding, right?

@kevbo All references to the secrecy, including the reference you gave (interesting) are talking about a very tiny portion of The Government and I stand by my statement.

@kevbo I agree with @YARNLADY. And per you your link, I believe some things NEED to be kept secret.

@Dutchess_III, I don’t think anyone has argued differently, but you might be interested to know that the genesis of current state secrets precedent is primarily based on a cover up of “government” negligence.

The leading Supreme Court decision on state secrets is United States v. Reynolds, which grew out of the crash in Georgia in 1948 of a B-29 bomber on a secret mission. Nine men died, and the widows of three of them sued the government for negligence. The central document in the case was the Air Force’s accident report. The government refused to turn it over, saying that disclosure of the report, even to a judge, would endanger national security by revealing military secrets. When the report was ultimately released in 1996, it contained no secrets at all but did show appalling negligence.

@kevbo There is nothing new here, yet the U. S. has survived this and much worse. Again The Government is not a few rogue agencies or people.

Yes, I’m sure the families of those servicemen took great comfort in the perspective you are advocating.

I’m don’t need to pursue our semantic difference. You’re welcome to keep your definition.

@kevbo Not to labor the point too much, but I would wager that if asked, the families would not subscribe to your philosophy that the Government is some huge, secret entity, but rather that the Military people involved did something terribly wrong.

And yet they weren’t the ones whom the families sued. Go figure.

I’d be surprised if the government wasn’t hiding something.

It’s hiding a lot of things. A whole lot of information that the government has is classified and considered either state secrets or related to state secrets. That’s hiding stuff. Yes, it’s hiding stuff but that does not necessarily a conspiracy make. It is just the way governments act and the way ours acts more and more. Not condoning it, certainly. If more people cared they would do less of it but Americans are acting or failing to act out of fear and are not demanding more transparency from their government.