"So, basically, for a Future like Star Trek to work, the heritage of our ancestors has to die."

Not die, just subjugated under the common good. Remember the eugenics wars of TOS and the 'post atomic horror' of TNG were examples of the acknowledgement of humanity to nearly be wiped out to get rid of the more extreme elements. Then humanity needed to wake up to the common need to survive and with the arrival of the vulcans that many of the old arguments were petty in regard to a wider universe. The old beliefs didn't die but were placed in context of a wider view instead of being the only view.

"But when it finally happens, nothing will be the same ever again, and Washington, Jefferson, Franklin, and all the rest will turn over in their graves."

        What you mean the founding fathers aren't spinning in their graves at black hole generating speeds already????!!!!
 

"Sure, there's a need for bosses in some cases, but deliberately seeking that out, where the objective is to be able to order people around rather than accomplish a specific goal, has to be some kind of mental illness or atavistic throwback."

        I read in a sci-fi story from the fifties that to defeat this problem of control freaks, everyone who was to gain position above others had to take various tests designed to weed out all those unwanted social/psycho tendencies (hundreds from a list) and not allow those individuals to be in charge of anyone ever. It even had a scenario of what happens when one bad individual slips through such a system. It was a good story.

You left out alienating the other studios by exposing their corrupting influence on government, that they function more as a monopoly, and have been lying to the public about their accounting for decades.

"In China (and most east-asian cultures), you never disrespect rulers. It simply is not done, and they see it as a grave insult to the entire nation to do so."

      That's because the rulers of those cultures strictly killed any casual dissenters outright over thousands of years thereby breeding casual dissent out of the culture. East vs West is the "cathedral and the bazaar" in human cultures.

    Wow I made this political story opensource and slashdot relevant.

"You can say whatever you like, your government won't try to stop you, but sling vile insults at some guy at the bar and you're liable to get a fist to the face in response."

    And the minute he got violent he was wrong. That's why in the eyes of the law it's assault. Physical actions generate responses. Ideas are just ideas until actions are taken and speech is just a medium for ideas, good or bad is irrelevant, but when actions are taken that's when it becomes important. You do understand that by advocating for consequences you're supporting the idea of thought police, don't you?

"People listen and actually murder several million in your race/religion, get the fuck over it."

      They took direct violent physical action which harmed millions. They were wrong and should be punished.

"Speech is an act. It's a more powerful act in terms of efficiency than any sticks or stones. It has consequences - sometimes these consequences should involve legal sanctions, and often not, but there are always ethical consequences."

        Speech is a non-physical indirect exchange of ideas, that's it. Ethics is still about ideas. "Sticks and stones may break my bones but names will never hurt me." The minute someone takes physical action to harm someone else they are wrong. That's where consequences should be exacted, nowhere else. In order to have freedom of speech you can't have consequences otherwise speech won't be free as self-censoring will be the order of the day. Something we see a lot of anymore.

"...elimination of any sort of forced labor obligation, including slavery, indentured servitude, debtor's prison, and conscription; minimal obstruction of immigration; no restrictions on hiring or firing people; no minimum wage or mandatory benefits; no restrictions on the trade or creation of capital; and no health or safety regulation of businesses that are below a certain threshold of deaths per hour worked."

      I see you haven't learned from history. We had all that in the 1800's. They don't call it the era of the 'Robber Barons' for nothing. How many people have to die to suit you? How many lives have to be damaged by 'sweatshop conditions' before it becomes too much? The reason current rules are in place is because of the abuses your system fostered.
      During that time the technological advancements were low hanging fruit requiring little more than basic knowledge that anyone could develop in a lifetime. Now, most real development requires generations of knowledge with associated costs and supports which business will not shoulder unless some kind of long term payoff or control(government) is in place if even then. So how do you expect development would continue?

" Case in point i just had to make 3 corrections to the previous sentenc."

four.

"Blaming dispensaries for robbery is like blaming a woman's attire for her being raped"

    Actually it's like blaming the nun's attire the woman was wearing when she was raped.

      Robbers are a natural enemy of businesses just like foxes are of chickens.

" now they are priming the US market for a massive "buy it to spite terrorrist !" direct to DVD"

    Well that failed as I refuse to buy from ball-less companies.

"but you should have some plan for keeping the kids from calling in new threats every day and shutting the school down permanently."

      I'm all for that. With the internet the damn brats could be taught at home and community centers for larger common needs(ex. equipped classrooms, etc) with less risk all around and no cost to anyone but the parents. I'd see my property taxes go down to nothing rather than shelling out thousands a year for other peoples spawn. But that would make sense, can't have that.

"Maybe they should start at home and repeal the 4th amendment first?"

    Forget that, repeal the 2nd amendment first and deal with the civil war that comes in response. If the repeal wins the rest of the amendments will fall like dominoes.

"all federal employees have to choose their plan from a plethora of private insurance carriers,"

    Well, except for congress and maybe the military.

You know this whole thing is about preventing U.S. access to the business records in tax havens right? Or other issues that businesses do by jumping countries to avoid government accountability.

"back off on policing the world, and learn to live in a fricking budget!"

        Sure, any time you want to cede world dominance to China or Russia just go ahead. The USA is the biggest bad boy on the planet and that costs money and has responsibilities especially if we want to keep it that way. Don't want the cost and responsibilities that go with the job of top dog then give it up and suffer the consequences of living under Russian or Chinese rule. Damn cheap, short-sighted, self-serving fools.