Update: Yeah. I misspelled “Stasi.” I recognized it as soon as I saw it on my blog. But I left it. I’m a fuck-up, and so is everyone else. Including everyone at every level of government. And every official part of our security establishment. And every “private contractor” like Snowden and his employers — the cyber-equivalents of “Blackwater.”
You trust these fuck-ups? including me? Then it’s game over. Democracy is done.
Referring to Snowden’s revelations about the NSA’s spying on Americans, MSNBC’s Chris Matthews just said, “Apparently a majority of Americans are OK with this program.” I hope “Tweety” is wrong (as he is most of the time). Here’s why:
Were these same Americans OK with the “inform on your neighbors” practices Nazis encouraged in occupied Europe? Remember Anne Frank? You like both the child’s idealistic diary and the craven domestic spying of the weasels who outed her to the Nazis … who, albeit indirectly, murdered both her and her family? Then look up the term “cognitive dissonance” on the web.
You like the NSA spying on Americans program? But you hate the spying on East Germans program of the notorious Stassi? Same advice: Look up the term “cognitive dissonance.”
Why did J. Edgar Hoover remain in office for so long? Even though several successive presidents recognized his poisonous evil and personally hated him? Because Hoover’s F.B.I., on his personal orders, had for decades been collecting covert information with which to blackmail anyone who even hinted at deposing him.
You think the feds can be trusted to use data they collect only against those we all would consider enemies of or threats to our nation? You’re sane, sober, and drug-free? And you still believe that?
You a Democrat? Remember that what David Spitzer did was the same as what a whole lot of politicians do, regardless of party. But only Spitzer was targeted by an official federal investigation. Why Spitzer? Uh, you do remember that his nickname was “Sheriff of Wall Street,” right? And that he was investigated and threatened with prosecution by the Alberto Gonzales “Cheney/Shrub” Justice Department, right? You a Republican? Remember your hysteria about your conviction that the feds — IRS to be specific — were using information they had collected to target ultra-rightwing 401 (c ) tax dodgers?
You still trust the feds to collect information about every American citizen, indiscriminately, and then cherry-pick that information to target our nation’s enemies? And you trust that your definition of our nation’s enemies will be the same as that of whichever bureaucratic/elected/private contractor is doing the cherry-picking?
Then you’re beyond the reach of evidence and rational argument. Just return to your leftwing or centrist or rightwing pipe dream.
