MovieChat Forums > Fast Food Nation (2007) Discussion > Patriot Act

Patriot Act

posted 15 years ago by CarlSolomon
8 replies | jump to latest

I liked this movie, but the student activists did say something questionable. One of them said that destruction of private property is against the patriot act. Actually, that law has been around for a good deal longer and for good reason. And then one of them says "right now, I can't think of anything more patriotic than violating the patriot act." That's too bad because you're not violating it. Maybe, Linklater threw it in there to show how these students didn't know much about what they were against, but it seemed out of place in an otherwise shocking expose.

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[–] yrion 15 years ago

No, actually they said the Patroit Act can get they in more trouble than just the law against property destruction.

[–] CarlSolomon 15 years ago

How is that? Because I'm not sure that's true. The patriot act is principally about search and seizure, not terrorism.

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[–] ComradeGramsci 15 years ago

At first I thought that little take was to stereotype the liberal college student, until the other one said it's patriotic to break the patriot act, as though it was some clever line. That just shows this movie was as well thought out as your typical 20 year old's politics.

[–] joshuak47 15 years ago

The movie didn't portray the young college students in a glamorous way (in my opinion). But it did show the way that some people deal with the idea of the meat industry.

[–] Dutch90 15 years ago

How do you "violate" the Patriot Act? The Patriot Act grants government agencies more freedom in invading the privacy of U.S. citizens, broadens the definition of terrorism to include domestic terrorism and makes it easier to detain and deport immigrants. A citizen can't "violate" the Patriot Act because there's nothing in it that can be violated by a citizen. It's about giving the government more rights at the expense of its citizens, it doesn't impose new rules that citizens must obey to which could be broken.

Please don't misunderstand, I'm not defending the Patriot Act (hell no), I'm just pointing out that due to the technical nature of the Patriot Act you can't really violate it. It doesn't tell you anything that you're not allowed to do. So the student activist's comment was somewhat ignorant.

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[–] crzy_bne 15 years ago

I'm sorry, but the Patriot Act is the most unconstitutional thing I've ever heard of... It's legalizing the "Salem Witch Trials" and VERY un-American.

No bueno to the PAtriot Act

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[–] germite 14 years ago

I have to say, that scene confused me too, because I know there's the AETA (Animal Enterprise Terrorist Act) and the RICO law that have both been applied against ELF, ALF, and independent individuals undertaking property-destroying actions, and in 2005 FBI Deputy Assistant Director John Lewis said that animal and eco activists were the biggest threat in America.

However, as far as I know, none of that has anything to do with the PATRIOT ACT, so either A) Linklater and Schlosser were trying to communicate an ideology while simultaneously playing realistically to the potential of younger people to be misinformed about an issue, as someone here postulated, B) Linklater and Schlosser were both confused about this (unlikely), or C) They chose to cite the PATRIOT ACT because more people have actually heard about this (as opposed to the AETA) and already have some resentment towards it that they could use this as a springboard to make their message more easily accepted.

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[–] 14 years ago

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