German here: Angela Merkel (our chancellor) didnt even seem to care that the NSA had tapped her phone (1). The newly released cybersecurity strategy wants to backdoor all encrypted services (2).

Sure you can encourage your local politicians to do "something". You can "protest" and maybe the federal politicians will even "admire" your cause. But realistically, there's nothing to be done.

(1): https://www.zeit.de/politik/deutschland/2019-02/abhoeraffaer...

(2): https://marketresearchtelecast.com/cyber-%E2%80%8B%E2%80%8Bs...

> Angela Merkel (our chancellor) didnt even seem to care that the NSA had tapped her phone

That's because she perhaps knows better than anyone that Germany also spy on the US; work with the US to spy on other countries; or in general, all intelligence agencies spy?

https://www.dw.com/en/german-intelligence-spied-on-white-hou...

Missed that info. Thank you!

If people think there's nothing to be done, then indeed, nothing will be done.

Wenn ein Mann denkt, dass nichts getan werden kann, dann kann nichts getan werden.

Well if you think reality is a Hollywood rhetoric where if youre determined enough you can accomplish anything regardless of obstacles - good luck.

Just gonna leave this list of events where the villains were brought to justice:

https://github.com/dessalines/essays/blob/master/us_atrociti...

No right-minded person would claim that mere determination leads to success. You need a lot of other things, including knowledge, luck, and more. However, it is correct to assert the contra-positive: if you don't try, then you will fail 100% of the time.

But, to empathize with you, I understand the concern. It is disheartening to think that your efforts may go to waste, and result in...nothing. Worse than nothing, because you've paid the opportunity cost of the attempt. This is real.

The mitigation is to reduce your opportunity cost. Send a letter to your legislature, an email to a newspaper. Talk to your friends about the issue. The positive effect is that you're broadcasting a truth, and maybe someone will respond.

(Also, chicks dig a guy who actually believes in shit.)

"The mitigation is to reduce your opportunity cost (...) Also, chicks dig a guy who actually believes in shit."

Man feels himself to be responsible, but he is not. He does not feel himself an object, but he is. He has been so well assimilated to the economic world, so well adjusted to it by being reduced to the homo economicus, in short, so well conditioned, that the appearance of personal life becomes for him the reality of personal life. Ellul, 1954

"Anybody can look at a pretty girl and see a pretty girl. An artist can look at a pretty girl and see the old woman she will become. A better artist can look at an old woman and see the pretty girl that she used to be. But a great artist-a master-and that is what Auguste Rodin was-can look at an old woman, portray her exactly as she is...and force the viewer to see the pretty girl she used to be...and more than that, he can make anyone with the sensitivity of an armadillo, or even you, see that this lovely young girl is still alive, not old and ugly at all, but simply imprisoned inside her ruined body. He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart...no matter what the merciless hours have done to her." - Heinlein

And so it is with us, and our beautiful, human sense of morality, responsibility, and integrity, ravaged by time and the requirements of practicality.

I've been thinking like that sometimes, that in a way one never gets older than eighteen (or 19 or 20), only the body does

> He can make you feel the quiet, endless tragedy that there was never a girl born who ever grew older than eighteen in her heart...no matter what the merciless hours have done to her." -

Yeesh. I'm glad I've met a lot of 'girls' who are actually grownups, not teenagers in more wrinkly skin.

It is truly remarkable the effort people make to express outraged offense. It requires so much! It would not be enough to ignore the point, which is about hope in the face of political hopelessness, you then had to then ignore the gist of the quote, which is that beauty is obscured by time, never lost, and then the coup de' grace, manufacture an attack! All of this to rise up to defend women from that attack, speaking down to the cruel jackal(s) that would reduce divine womanhood to nothing more than a piece-of-ass in this abhorrent way!

You, sir, are a true inspiration to anyone who ever searched for offense. You've shown clearly that all it takes is grit and determination, and you can find it, right there for the taking, that juicy plumb of outrage. Bravo, and well done!

You sound more a lot more outraged than me. I thought the Heinlein quote is kind of gross because it sits on the idea that the high point of a woman's life is to be 18. I'd feel similarly it if you replaced 'girl' with 'boy'.

It's also funny when people try to be poetic but just reproduce some of the most ordinary and depressing sentiments of their society. Something you and Heinlein have in common, I guess.

The quote speaks to the body, and it's representation in art. It acknowledges that the body decays and this is great suffering. Yet the inside is still filled with life and love, in defiance of the outward decay, and a great artist can show this. That in fact the bodies decay is even more interesting and beautiful than the beauty of youth and health.

By characterizing the quote in the way you have, you've willfully ignored this intent, which was clear in the quote and in my usage of it. You've denied the beauty of decay, the notion that value can be ascribed to the elderly.

And why, because Heinlein acknowledges what we all know, that the two universal indicators of attractiveness are youth and health? And that we lose both over time?

In any event, this is my last message on this thread; I've made my point. As for poetry, yes, I try and usually fail. But I try, and I will keep trying no matter what.

Yeah I agree we are pretty much done here. All (major) countries are treating this "feature" of "must-have" and once you give the bureaucratic some power it is almost impossible to take it away from them.

Maybe she had nothing to hide :]

The easiest thing you can do is write a letter to your local member of parliament.

Quick update: I just sent a short & friendly email to my local member of parliament asking him about his position on the matter. Took about 10 minutes.

Kül. If you send me your email I'll paypal you $5 for your trouble. Seriously.

Around these parts, that would turn gp from a concerned citizen into a lobbyist, with all the regulations and what not that entails. I dunno about where you're from, but the moral is be careful when publicly paying people to petition their government.

You know what, you're right. Regardless of what the law says, my offer potentially reduces the act of civic participation to something to be paid for, rather than something that is an intrinsic good. A small evil that, at scale, becomes a great evil.

So I say instead to the GP: cheers! I drink a toast to you and your efforts. May they be impactful!

Send it to me and I will pray for your soul.

> everyone is doing it, there's nothing to be done, etc. This is wrong.

Well, what can be done about it? The US is not gonna stop spying just because they got denounced and certainly no country will declare war on them over it.

They all want to partake in the spying, that's the central issue for countries like Germany. It's the same across all of the 5|9|14 eyes groups of nations. They know exactly what the bargain is that they're accepting. They all know exactly what they're doing. No modern nation is so naive. Nobody else comes close to the global spying capabilities of the US, the other eyes nations all know that and they all want access to it.

Germany has been knowingly helping to make the US global spying capabilities more potent for most of the post WW2 era.

If you're Germany what you do is take whatever limited corrective counter measures that you can and attempt to improve the security of Merkel's communications, while seeking to maintain continued access to the US global spying machine.

If there is an orgy you don't call the police... you find out the address so you can attend as well.

What is the connection to the US here? This article and the GP primarily concern Germany, as far as I'm aware.