Crossing into incivility like this isn't ok on HN and will eventually get you banned, so please read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and don't do this. Please don't do political flamewars on HN either.
So yeah, even if #2 wasn't in play I'd still be against it.
I think your point is sound, but I'm not sure this is the best example. Regular shootings are causing a lot more deaths, although I doubt the NSA has any interest in stopping either one (and of course, their official charge doesn't include either one).
I think that sums it up.
> why is it spying on citizens
...is that it's doing that to prevent foreign attacks, not eg. mass shootings.
Furthermore, even if it were doing anything useful with its domestic spying, such as preventing domestic crime, obviously we'd all rather address plain ole' shootings, which take many more lives than mass shootings.
Yeah... foreign terrorism only occurs when foreign entities stand at the border and throw things into our country. LMAO.
On one hand, scoring touchdowns (in this metaphor, preventing domestic crime) isn't their charge.
But on the other, they are also engaged primarily in self-serving funny business instead of hitting home runs (ie, protecting people from foreign aggression and securing the telecommunications systems of the USA).
Such as?
Domestic terrorism isn't the NSA's purview. Their job is signals intelligence against the rest of the world.
Don't get me wrong, I don't like the surveillance either, but domestic terrorism isn't their job. Sure, if they notice something, they will pass it along, but it's not what they are looking for (I believe). If there's been a proverbial ball dropped, it's probably more accurate to blame the FBI than the NSA.
Intelligence agencies DO NOT trumpet triumphs.
The NSA is not the FBI.
There's no arguments to be made here, there's just ignorance of incontrovertible and uncontroversial facts which can be easily looked up.
It's like reading a post by someone bitching about the modern Hollywood blockbuster culture by citing Superman's plot arc in the new Avengers movie, except that somehow it isn't a trolling attempt. What sort of attention does that blatant misconception and willful ignorance deserve?
What's yours? Is there something to gain from a post that effectively just says "you're wrong"?
Try having even the tiniest bit of an idea what you are talking about.
What would work much better is to wait until you can comment neutrally, and then comment neutrally with information we can all learn from.
Uh, the constant mass shootings that have occurred over the past year wherein, 100% of the time, the perp was already known to police and FBI and had a very public troubling online presence detailing their years of mental instability and virulent racism?
>intelligence agencies don't talk about their activities, even their successes, for very good reason.
The hell are you talking about? The FBI is constantly publicly congratulating themselves when they "foil" a "plot" their agent provocateurs have cooked up.
https://citationsneeded.libsyn.com/ep-31-fake-isis-plots-and...
The NSA doesn't like to brag as much as the FBI does but they're clearly just as responsible for dropping the ball on domestic terrorism every other week when yet another mass shooting happens...