I mean, do we really expect anyone else to seriously care about this stuff, when we kind of subtly mock them for having initially cared at all?
"I'm not sure why anyone's surprised" is the nerd version of being too "cool" to ever care about something.
I don;t intend to come over as bragging, but given what is widely know surprise is simply not a sensible reaction if you keep up with the relevant news.
Constantly being surprised by this sort of thing means people simply aren't learning from the recent past. People seem to go from surprised, to offended/angry/disgusted, to apathetic, to completely forgetting until next time, to being surprised again.
I'm not sure what the answer is unfortunately, aside from maybe "stay offended/angry/disgusted and nag and nag and nag and nag and nag until things change or you are arrested".
You lost me here. Privacy, yes, anonymity? Where is that in the Constitution (assuming you're a USA-ian).
I'm too lazy to do my own citations, but the courts have repeatedly struck down bans on anonymous speech on these grounds.
Backed up by the supreme court in the right for group memberships not to be revealed.
You have the right to anonymously assemble and associate with a political group. I hope you don't lose it.
Not to get too meta, but this 'lack of surprise' thing has become a too-common reaction. I mean, objectively, what's more important - that the NSA is labeling Tor users as extremists, or whether or not you found this new information 'surprising'? Apart from being a distasteful brag, I don't think the assumption is correct. I'd imagine most people's response to be 'anger' or 'depression' or 'concern', although of course it's impossible to know for sure.
But what I really object to, and why I hope people stop using this language, is that it asserts that our collective reaction (however it is characterized) is more important than the story itself. In a very subtle way, it refocuses the argument and lets the NSA off the hook, and indeed, blames us for our having silly, outdated ideas like that our government might value and even protect our right to anonymous speech, rather than criminalize it.
As for the rest, it's possibly true that ubiquity is the only way forward.