Authority and propaganda weigh very heavily on people's perspectives; it is an idea of mine that the American 21st century propaganda regime is the strongest in

Authority and propaganda weigh very heavily on people's perspectives; it is an idea of mine that the American 21st century propaganda regime is the strongest in history thus far. For the people who accept authority as the source of ideas, the anti-surveillance/pro-privacy movement is a non-starter because the dominant military figures say it's harmful, and their word is king because they are the top of the hierarchy. We have now lost about 40% (maybe more, or maybe less? I made up that number based off of how many people vote Republican because conservatives are traditionally associated with being more authority-compliant) of people with this exclusion. That leaves the remaining 60% of the population, for which there is pervasive propaganda. The mainstream media outlets mention the surveillance issue only in passing, and typically give undue weight and time to government accounts, leading to a skewed perspective. People like Greenwald/Snowden get very little airtime, and when they do, they're framed as eccentric outsiders (social undesirables) who have a stupid opinion that the news is obligated to share to appear "balanced". EDIT: Clarified my Republicans comment a bit. The main thrust is that there is a large population of people who are going to be swayed by authority figures, and these people tend to be politically conservative.