Re:57% Fear Government Will Use NSA Data to Harass Political...
by coldtea on Friday June 14, 2013 @06:03PM
(#5882778)
>Sorry but is this the kind of paranoid stupidity I should start to expect from HN now ?
Nothing "paranoid" about it.
Are you some kind of totally private citizen, only concerned with his household affairs, that has never been in any activist, grassroots, dissident movement, from OWS to EFF?
If yes, your lack of historical knowledge is understandable.
>The "government" has been able to collect far more data via the tax and health care systems, TSA, census etc for decades. Imagine all the scary statements I could contrive from those.
No need to imagine anything. Yes, they have been able to collect all these data, and they have already used them. Even in the past, do you know how many people the government didn't like did Senator McCarthy or J.E. Hoover step on, blackmailed, got fired from their job and/or jailed with such data?
Do you remember why Nixon was resigned? Remember that Watergate thing? Heck, they eavesdropped and broke into the HQs of the Democratic Party, which is a huge power itself. Consider what they'd do to dissidents, whistleblowers and such.
>Or how about we amp up the crazy and talk about all the things the "government" could be doing with their drones and satellites.
What's crazy about it? They already murder citizens of sovereign nations with them, without trial, and also track foreign (as if only) nations, corporations, etc, with those. You meant to suggest those things are not bad enough already?
Nothing "paranoid" about it.
Are you some kind of totally private citizen, only concerned with his household affairs, that has never been in any activist, grassroots, dissident movement, from OWS to EFF?
If yes, your lack of historical knowledge is understandable.
>The "government" has been able to collect far more data via the tax and health care systems, TSA, census etc for decades. Imagine all the scary statements I could contrive from those.
No need to imagine anything. Yes, they have been able to collect all these data, and they have already used them. Even in the past, do you know how many people the government didn't like did Senator McCarthy or J.E. Hoover step on, blackmailed, got fired from their job and/or jailed with such data?
Do you remember why Nixon was resigned? Remember that Watergate thing? Heck, they eavesdropped and broke into the HQs of the Democratic Party, which is a huge power itself. Consider what they'd do to dissidents, whistleblowers and such.
>Or how about we amp up the crazy and talk about all the things the "government" could be doing with their drones and satellites.
What's crazy about it? They already murder citizens of sovereign nations with them, without trial, and also track foreign (as if only) nations, corporations, etc, with those. You meant to suggest those things are not bad enough already?