People should fear neither lightning (it's spelled without an e, by the way) nor the US government. At least if they are not involved nor plausibly confused for being involved with inciting terrorism. At least, if they want their fear to be a tool of survival rather than just an irrational impulse. They should fear car crashes and things like that.

The US does not abduct people to get a message across, as much as you may want to believe that there is some equivalence between what our government is doing and what the government of the USSR did. Now, I'm not claiming that these abductions were right, but it's laughable to try to equate them.

I don't understand what you're trying to say. Khalid al-Masri had better feared the US government, and probably now does. So should everyone who's a muslim or brown, apparently, as the CIA reserves the right to abduct and torture people.

Yes, being abducted and tortured by the CIA is relatively speaking rarer than a car accident, but it's something entirely out of your control, and something completely avoidable.

I'm saying exactly what you think I'm saying. Even if you're in the unfortunate minority that the US chooses to be biased against, you're thousands of times more likely to be hurt in a car accident than to be abducted. That doesn't excuse the CIA's behavior, but it does inform what a rational brown, Muslim person should spend his or her time fearing. (Hint: Other things being equal, not US surveillance of their innocuous internet traffic.)

I didnt equate them. See you in 10 years from now, then Ill equate them.

For now, I was just making the observation that you dont need to activley supress millions of people to have a dictatorship - it is the fear that is keeping the milllions down and in line.

Examples are made of a few, and that process has already started with the Manning and Snowden treatments.

Not to mention the many that are left in a black bag in a bathtub by the CIA/MI6.