If there's no difference, perhaps you'd like to elucidate on the difference between, say, Sweden and the average 3rd/4th world nation? I mean, with the reach of Sweden's government, it's gotta be a hellhole, right?
This line of argument is generally referred to as "jumping the shark". Obviously there's a difference.
Sweden: The president travels by motorcade with posh limos and armed agents, guns hidden but ready.
3rd world regime: The leader travels around in an SUV with machine-gun wielding guards.
Why do both leaders need to travel accompanied by such a display of force? The pageantry of such displays intimidate rivals.
The mistake those in the thread disagreeing with me are making is to assume that just b/c governments are less often observed to blatantly harass their own citizens, they are more civilized than the small time crooks whose lack of power occasionally necessitates messier tactics.
National boundaries should be thrown out the window. Obama has ordered the death of thousands during his regime and his minions have carried out the orders with precision. The rest of us (citizens) are equivalent to distant relatives sitting at the dinner table with Tony Soprano exchanging smalltalk, complicit and abetting every single action and willfully ignorant of all the (mostly brown skinned) people being exterminated.
"Sweden" ... "The mistake those in the thread disagreeing with me are making is to assume that just b/c governments are less often observed to blatantly harass their own citizens, they are more civilized than the small time crooks whose lack of power occasionally necessitates messier tactics." ... "Obama has ordered the death of thousands"
And you're making a number of mistakes:
1) Treating "government" as one common set of practices around the globe. Say what you will about Obama and the United States, but governments with more local interests (e.g., Switzerland, Iceland, etc.) are almost certainly better than organized crime groups for both their internal people AND those outside their boundaries.
2) It's simply wrong to state that the Swedish president traveling around with guards and their "hidden" arms is a display of pageantry. Rather, it's a well-founded (and tragically necessary) act of self-preservation: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assassination_of_Olof_Palme
This line of argument is generally referred to as "jumping the shark". Obviously there's a difference.