So
for anyone who is ok with the revelations about the government's
universal spying program...let me talk to you for a moment, then ask a
question.
I've heard some of the arguments in favor of allowing
the NSA to monitor as they please without complaint. They are
approximated as follows:
"They're only doing it to keep us safe from terrorists. They're on our side."
"I am not a terrorist, so I don't have anything to hide."
"They only look at metadata, not actual content. We can trust our own government."
"Every government out there is doing this, we have to keep up."
Is that about it?
Quick response: BULLSHIT. I don't care if the intention of these
programs is to keep us safe, they are removing the things that are
supposed to make America special in the first place. You know, liberty
and freedom? The right to privacy in some vestigial sense. All too often
it is a focus on an external threat that allows the real danger to grow
within like a cancer. Ever heard of COINTELPRO? Hoover was big on
surveillance too, and he wasn't on "our" side. If you think it's okay
for what's going on to continue, you aren't on my side either. So you're
not a terrorist, huh? Well, friend, in a police state, a terrorist is
whoever the authorities decide is a terrorist. Maybe they don't like the
books you're checking out from the library, maybe they don't think you
need to study what you study. What's the difference between a terrorist
and a freedom fighter? Depends who you are asking.
As far as
metadata vs content, how are we to trust anything we are told? The
government didn't trust us enough to tell us ANYTHING, but they expect
trust in return? Sounds like a pimp & ho kind of relationship. Not
to mention, it is demonstrably false that they can keep this data
secure. That goes without saying at this point. Any and everything can
and will be eventually hacked. Period.
Every government is
doing it? Not to this scale, they don't have the capacity. Besides,
didn't we use to oppose regimes that persecuted citizens for knowledge
and thought crimes? Weren't they the bad guys?
I don't know
about you, but the fact that we are in a totally Orwellian 1984-style
Big Brother state does not make me feel safe. At all. That is not my
idea of America and, again, if it is yours WE ARE NOT ON THE SAME SIDE.
Lastly, a question: Imagine a technology that allowed a government, or
corporate, worker sitting in some room to scan people's thoughts. The
actual thoughts inside their heads. Sounds far-fetched, right? So did
the Internet 50 years ago. So did space travel a hundred. Would you be
ok with governments and corporations rummaging around in people's heads,
looking for dirt?
You're still not a terrorist, right? Still
have nothing to hide...so would you be ok with that? How is that
substantively different from the things we are allowing now? And the
things that are surely as the rising sun coming down the pipeline unless
we stop it now.
Please think about it.
#todayisareddawn, #weareenemiesofthestate
