One view is that government supports your rights.
The other view is that government can RESTRICT your expression of your inherent rights.
Either way, your ability to express your rights is at the whim of those in power (government, local bully, whatever...). The line from a to b is very short.
And for what it's worth, I don't like it. That's reality, I'm not at all happy that that's how life happens, but that's the way it happens.
I guess that would depend upon what you believe "meaningless" means.
"Meaningless" means, as I had said earlier, "practically expressable" The rights people fight and die for only matter if, in the end, those fighting for them actually win and have the ability to express those rights. They are not yet attained, not yet held, ideals worth fighting for, goals worth reaching to attain, but not yet possessed