I am greatly discouraged over poll numbers presented yesterday at the Washington Post in which the majority of Americans support the government's stance on espionage, provided that the effort is directed at finding terrorists. A large number (45%) agree that the government should go farther than it has already.
It makes feel very sorry for Edward Snowden, who has risked life-altering circumstances in order to bring this particular instance of the US government's abuse of power to light. It seems he needn't have bothered.
Americans have given this a ho-hum and gone back to Dancing with the Stars.
Americans are afraid that Google, Facebook, and various advertising agencies are spying on them. Yet at most these companies only want to sell them stuff (or sell their info to other companies that want to sell them stuff). Yet they trust the US government, which has an established precedent for drone-striking American citizens that have been deemed enemy combatants.
The only thing for which the US government needs information about you is for 1) collecting more taxes, 2) assessing your suitability as a drone target, 3) assessing your suitability as a rendition target, or 4) assessing the likelihood that they will be able to steal your house and all your assets due to drug offences. In the last dozen years there has been only one terrorist case that was not unambigously created as part of a sting operation by the FBI (there is room for doubt on the Boston bombing case).
You can opt-out of Google.
It makes feel very sorry for Edward Snowden, who has risked life-altering circumstances in order to bring this particular instance of the US government's abuse of power to light. It seems he needn't have bothered.
Americans have given this a ho-hum and gone back to Dancing with the Stars.
Americans are afraid that Google, Facebook, and various advertising agencies are spying on them. Yet at most these companies only want to sell them stuff (or sell their info to other companies that want to sell them stuff). Yet they trust the US government, which has an established precedent for drone-striking American citizens that have been deemed enemy combatants.
The only thing for which the US government needs information about you is for 1) collecting more taxes, 2) assessing your suitability as a drone target, 3) assessing your suitability as a rendition target, or 4) assessing the likelihood that they will be able to steal your house and all your assets due to drug offences. In the last dozen years there has been only one terrorist case that was not unambigously created as part of a sting operation by the FBI (there is room for doubt on the Boston bombing case).
You can opt-out of Google.
But you can't opt-out of government surveillance.
Washington Post are known government flacks. The disinfo campaign against Snowden has begun.
ReplyDeleteTrue enough. But it's a good source for ideas to oppose.
ReplyDelete