It's also worth mentioning that surveillance is not news for poor and minority communities. Incursions on privacy justified by the "war on drugs" have been going on for decades in neighborhoods on the other side of the digital divide.

And tis should be a wakeup call; if the system was actually built correctly, they would not have to be worrying about their next meal or paycheck!

Take all the MIC funding and redirect it into education, infra, science and social services.

Make the world better rather than weaponizing idiocy to defend a farked up system.

While this is true. The general sentiment here at HN is that, more people seem to care about Zimmerman/trevor type media sensation than NSA scandals.

> more people seem to care about Zimmerman/trevor type media sensation

which is because they understand the implications of it. Most people, from my experience, have limited understanding of privacy and the consequences. The way I think of it is this: most people in this country don't realize they should be playing at least checkers while a very few people are actually playing chess.

The thing that gets is the crap that you pass under the banner of "Think of the children". Once the investment and infrastructure is done "in the name of the children", then it takes a very few (and highly paid) individuals to turn that technology and infrastructure into anything they want.

It's a slippery slope.