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>> I'm free speech and pro-encryption, but I am not sure whether grinning and bearing it is really an effective weapon against terrorist activity, considering i

>> I'm free speech and pro-encryption, but I am not sure whether grinning and bearing it is really an effective weapon against terrorist activity, considering its ratcheting effects on public opinion. So, if we don't ban encryption, what are we going to do? I'm in the same position. It's getting harder to stick to my principals. The way I'm trying to think about it though is this: banning encryption and destroying privacy will not fix terrorism. Governments should be focusing on actual solutions to the root cause. Maybe we should stop blowing up the middle-east. We need to work for stability in those regions. Ban encryption and the terrorists will find another avenue to communicate and we'll lose freedoms for nothing.

lhnz 9y ago
> Maybe we should stop blowing up the middle-east. I agreed with this in the past but I was happy to see ISIS driven back from the territories they conquered. I wish we had never gone to war with Iraq and I wish we hadn't cheered during the 'Arab Spring', however that is now in the past. I care about what we do now and whether it can disrupt a violent ideology that is currently rapidly spreading from one person to the next across the world. The less violently it can be disrupted the better.
- HXFIVE 9y ago
  I'm strongly of the opinion that democracy will never flourish in the Middle East. Any attempts by the US and its allies to impose democratic systems are naïve (although I suspect those at the top are well aware, but just won't admit so). Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan all need secular dictators who can keep the populations under control.
noir_lord 9y ago
I just think of this quote :- > Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Franklin If the price for living in a free society is that the same freedoms are abused by a vanishingly small minority of people then I'm ok with that, I'm not ok with what those people do but I think the loss of freedom for 60m people is a greater problem than some brainwashed idiots going on a rampage once in a while.
- lhnz 9y ago
  What about a loss of freedom for the 20k or so people on the terrorism watchlist?

lhnz 9y ago

> Maybe we should stop blowing up the middle-east. I agreed with this in the past but I was happy to see ISIS driven back from the territories they conquered. I wish we had never gone to war with Iraq and I wish we hadn't cheered during the 'Arab Spring', however that is now in the past. I care about what we do now and whether it can disrupt a violent ideology that is currently rapidly spreading from one person to the next across the world. The less violently it can be disrupted the better.

HXFIVE 9y ago
I'm strongly of the opinion that democracy will never flourish in the Middle East. Any attempts by the US and its allies to impose democratic systems are naïve (although I suspect those at the top are well aware, but just won't admit so). Libya, Syria, Iraq, and Afghanistan all need secular dictators who can keep the populations under control.

noir_lord 9y ago

I just think of this quote :- > Those who would give up essential Liberty, to purchase a little temporary Safety, deserve neither Liberty nor Safety. - Franklin If the price for living in a free society is that the same freedoms are abused by a vanishingly small minority of people then I'm ok with that, I'm not ok with what those people do but I think the loss of freedom for 60m people is a greater problem than some brainwashed idiots going on a rampage once in a while.

lhnz 9y ago
What about a loss of freedom for the 20k or so people on the terrorism watchlist?