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Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

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Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#111

Post by RexRollman »

MysticFear wrote: post #89
hooande wrote: post #87

But what has really changed? The NSA is under pressure from the public, less so from the intelligence and defense communities. If anything Snowden has caused those areas of government to close ranks even tighter. There's nothing a leader wants more than a highly visible enemy to unite his or her people. There are orders of magnitude more people who hate General Alexander now than there were two years ago. But his own…

Political change isn't fast. There is also a legal process underway as well. Both are very slow moving, but can bring a lot of changes.

Unless something happens to ramp up the fear again, like some kind of attack.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#112

Post by SkynetSystems »

snowwrestler wrote: post #32
jliechti1 wrote: post #7

If the "terrorists" are following this whole story, wouldn't now be a prime time for another attack? This could have the effect of validating the NSA's activities in many Americans' eyes ("see, the NSA is unable to its job without invading our privacy") and we would see a whole new round of new laws capitalizing on Americans' fears of terrorists (which means their terrorism succeeded).

The NSA makes the lives of terrorists much harder than it would be otherwise. Terrorists undoubtedly welcome Snowden's revelations--both for revealing tactics, and for creating the possibility that the NSA will be constrained by public outrage. That doesn't imply that what Snowden did was wrong, though. We trade security for freedom in a thousand ways in American culture, and now we have a chance to debate that trade…

Yeah because "terrorists" who hate America use Facebook and Skype to discuss their terroristy plans and the good old NSA was only wiretapping all those services to protect us.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#113

Post by __m »

rmrfrmrf wrote: post #101
hooande wrote: post #87

But what has really changed? The NSA is under pressure from the public, less so from the intelligence and defense communities. If anything Snowden has caused those areas of government to close ranks even tighter. There's nothing a leader wants more than a highly visible enemy to unite his or her people. There are orders of magnitude more people who hate General Alexander now than there were two years ago. But his own…

Well IMO it's kind of silly to care about the government snooping through my data when huge corporations are the ones who actually own the fiber and can siphon all the traffic they want -- then sell it. You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.

No you can't choose, they might all spy on you. All you say will be used against you.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#114

Post by RexRollman »

znowi wrote: post #44

I didn’t want to change society. I wanted to give society a chance to determine if it should change itself. Despite a fair amount of indignation from the public, it seems to me that the majority has accepted the new surveillance reality.

Correct. Cowardice and apathy are allowing this to continue.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#115

Post by alan_cx »

rmrfrmrf wrote: post #101
hooande wrote: post #87

But what has really changed? The NSA is under pressure from the public, less so from the intelligence and defense communities. If anything Snowden has caused those areas of government to close ranks even tighter. There's nothing a leader wants more than a highly visible enemy to unite his or her people. There are orders of magnitude more people who hate General Alexander now than there were two years ago. But his own…

Well IMO it's kind of silly to care about the government snooping through my data when huge corporations are the ones who actually own the fiber and can siphon all the traffic they want -- then sell it. You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.

I've never been arrested by a corporation.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#116

Post by lhnz »

codex wrote: post #82

The world, especially the intelligence world, is more than black and white. A myriad hues exist, some of them dark and dirty, some grey. Here is a portrait of a man who is color blind. Experiencing the world only through a computer, he lacks the judgement to jump to the right conclusions, and goes thermonuclear only to find that mainstream Americans don't share his disability. He wants to be another Assange, but in t…

>> only to find that mainstream Americans don't share his disability.

It looks like you just got down-voted by almost everybody that read your comment. I guess when you look at yourself you should now say "here is a man that went thermonuclear only to find nobody else shared their disability." (When a man makes one judgment upon another, he should keep the ability to judge himself likewise.)

FYI the article I read had him expecting to see grey and finding an ever blackening black - so in contrast to your own comment, you need to realise that you are communing with people that aren't color blind and believe that these shades of reality are complex and require discussion.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#117

Post by Tyrannosaurs »

alan_cx wrote: post #115
rmrfrmrf wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well IMO it's kind of silly to care about the government snooping through my data when huge corporations are the ones who actually own the fiber and can siphon all the traffic they want -- then sell it. You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.

I've never been arrested by a corporation.

Do you think law enforcement aren't included in there customers? I know for a fact in the UK at least that they are.

As for being arrested by a corporation - that will change. The UK government for one are beginning a process of outsourcing some elements of front line policing.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#118

Post by tinfoil007 »

Thank you, Edward Snowden. You're true hero.

It's a shame, that your leaders can see in technology only surveillance, war machinery and ways to humiliate and subjugate others.

It's a shame, that USA's participation in computing is still a "donkey work", as tortured (and probably killed) Alan Turing once said.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#119

Post by nexttimer »

hooande wrote: post #87

But what has really changed? The NSA is under pressure from the public, less so from the intelligence and defense communities. If anything Snowden has caused those areas of government to close ranks even tighter. There's nothing a leader wants more than a highly visible enemy to unite his or her people. There are orders of magnitude more people who hate General Alexander now than there were two years ago. But his own…

> But what has really changed?

Nothing. And that seems to be his point. He's done (more than) his part. Now, if we don't like 1984, then it's now up to us to start acting.

Re: Edward Snowden, after months of NSA revelations, says his mission’s accomplished

#120

Post by ptaffs »

k-mcgrady wrote: post #102
rmrfrmrf wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well IMO it's kind of silly to care about the government snooping through my data when huge corporations are the ones who actually own the fiber and can siphon all the traffic they want -- then sell it. You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom.

>> "You're basically choosing between the US government or a combination of Verizon, AT&T, Sprint, and Deutsche Telekom." Honestly I'd be more happy with the telecom companies doing it. They can do much less harm with any data they get.

oh agreed -- less harm. And when the government do it, we the people pay tax to enable it. US Taxpayers are paying for these buildings, mega-data centers, and contractors.
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