[_heimdall]

Exactly, and its easy to hide behind things like the Patriot Act if challenged legally.

Its interesting to see the parties flip in real time. The Democrats seem to be realizing why a small federal government is so important, a fact that for quite a few years their were on the other side of.

[robmccoll]

I think the problem is exactly the opposite. The federal government has the total combined power and scale that it does because we are a massive and complex modern nation. That's inevitable. The problem that we are seeing is that the reigns to that power can be held by too few people it turns out. The checks and balances have ceased to exist. No one is held accountable and people are allowed to be above the law.

[_heimdall]

The power and scale of governments doesn't have to be correlated with the scale of the society. The concept of nations themselves aren't even a necessity.

I get that this is what we have today and all we've had in recent history, but we are ignoring a huge number of possibilities to assume that being human means always inventing new things, using more resources, creating more weapons, and needing larger and larger governments because someone had to be in charge.

[jMyles]

> The federal government has the total combined power and scale that it does because we are a massive and complex modern nation. That's inevitable.

Perhaps massive and complex (I'd say complicated) nation-states inevitably create industrial complexes, but it's certainly not inevitable that nation-states grow so large (or even exist) in 2026.

The idea that we still need soverign-esque entites across entire continents, when we can now communicate and coordinate instantly across them, and use cameras to documents truth all around us at all times, is just downright silly.

We can reduce states to the size that you can walk across in a day or two, and everybody will be much happier and healthier.

[catlifeonmars]

I don’t see the connection to a small federal government here. Mind connecting the dots?

[scottyah]

The government is forcing a company to change their terms of service, and "threatening" to have them effectively shut down. I say threat, because the SecWar issued an illegal command that no employees, or contractors of the federal could use any Anthropic product at all. He does not have that power.