I think they're trying to focus on arguing the points that are more obviously problematic. I'm not sure if you asked the average person today that they would ev

I think they're trying to focus on arguing the points that are more obviously problematic. I'm not sure if you asked the average person today that they would even be worried about abuse of power by their own government, despite history showing we should, unfortunately. Further the trend in modern left-style rhetoric is to sacrifice civil liberties for civil-security which is why this topic is even being discussed again. If you are already mentally in the camp of sacrificing your liberty for security, no argument purely to the contrary will sway you. Personally I find it more productive to focus on the practical problems and use those to dissuade people instead of trying to convince someone to shift their ideaology. I'm not saying you're wrong that it's a weaker stance, but it may be a more effective argument... At the end of the day the IEEE is a standards organization, not an internet ideaology group (c.f. The EFF).