DHS does not deny strong-arming tourist into letting them into his phone, only that agents sent him home because of a meme
The story circulating online — first in Norwegian newspaper Nordlys and then picked up by British tabloids — claims that during Mikkelsen’s encounter with the Department of Homeland Security, agents took his phone and found a meme depicting Vance as a bloated, smooth, bald man staring off into the distance.
Mikkelsen claims that the officials threatened to fine him $5,000 or send him to prison for five years if he refused to provide them with his phone password. The tourist ultimately agreed to hand over his information, allowing agents to look through his phone.
The reports picked up enough steam in headlines and on social media to justify CBP putting out a statement denying parts of the story.
Shifting baselines. It makes me wonder if people in the bad old times of monarchy might have actually been more free than we are now.
Be sure, they were not
Im curious what freedoms you think you have?
Like, a lot? Probably more or less same as you, surely
Just being able to move, own stuff, save my work for the future and be free to speak my mind without coercion are huge boons
And to do so efficiently without so much physical work or being afraid for my life every second is a bless
But my freedom is not absolute, you surely understand
I wouldn’t say so, it was just different: previously we had sovereign monarchy where people were subjected to violence, now we have disciplinary society with much less violence
That’s the conventional wisdom. But the power of the state was so much weaker back then.