Back in the 1700s and 1800s people trusted the government...
Are you referring to the events of the American Revolution or those of the Civil War? For the record, you have not made a valid generalization here. US history is so loaded with instances in which people did not trust their government, from Free Silverites to separatist abolitionists to slaveocracy secessionists to Coxey's Army to Copperbacks to Whiskey Rebellionists to Antifederalists to Jeffersonian Dem-Reps to electoral reform Progressives to skeptical muckrakers, that we could reasonably argue that the mistrust of government was the norm and today's examples are comparatively mild.
... and the government didn't have all of these conspiracies they were performing against the American people. ...
All of what conspiracies? Has the number of conspiracies in the country actually dropped since the Harding administration? Since the Grant administration?
... Our elected officials actually cared and were real people like you and me, not people like Obama or Bush or any of these clowns in Congress....
Congress has been reviled as being "not as good as it used to be" since 1777. The perpetual "fallen state" of Congress is quite like that of Saturday Night Live. Thomas Jefferson is the Chevy Chase of American government--things went downhill from the moment he left to do "European Vacation."
... but we're hardly a union anymore, now we're just a single nation-state just like Russia or France. We're not a union or a confederation. People rely on the federal government for everything, instead of relying on their state governments....
Poppycock. State governments perform a wide variety of vital functions. People are arguing to this day about what the feds ought to do vs. what the states should handle. The Framers of the Constitution had a very clear understanding (read some Mostesquieu for this) that the large a state is, the more despotic it was bound to act. This is exactly why it's critical to keep the states as independently functioning units within the nation-state.
... The Constitution is a joke now, it's a wonderful document, but our own government only abides by it when it is convenient for them to do so....
Quit listening to whatever raving lunatic you've been tuning your radio in to. He's a lunatic and all he does is rave and misinform you.
... They have the CIA out there killing our own people simply because they "know too much," we have wiretapping and the Patriot Act....
Without defending the Patriot Act, let me just say that if the CIA is killing people for knowing too much, you're perfectly safe.
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The government of 19th century America didn't hide proof of alien existence, fake moon landings, fly airplanes into buildings full of people, or assassinate JFK. Not that I believe in those conspiracy theories, I'm just pointing out that they didn't do those things.
"Things weren't so bad back before they did those things they don't do now."
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I like how the mods on penny arcade locked this exact same thread.
Yet another proof of government censorship of the Truth! about hidden aliens. We need a wall in space
