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I think it's baked into a certain conservative mindset that they are the ones who don't have anything to hide, which makes sense because if you don't have many
by caconym_ 7y ago
I think it's baked into a certain conservative mindset that they are the ones who don't have anything to hide, which makes sense because if you don't have many progressive opinions then you probably aren't chafing against authority too often.
And, I think authoritarians (many of them seem to march under the "conservative" banner these days) are fine with surveillance because they see it as a hallmark of an effective authoritarian government, and again they see themselves as members of the "in" group. They want those subversives who are hiding things to be found and punished.
Unfortunately, I don't think any of these people will be terribly moved by the fact that leaders of progressive social movements in the past or present have been targeted by surveillance. Their world-views are shaped by a perception that they will not be targeted by an overreaching government, and such movements are comprised of their explicit political enemies.
However, I think we stand to win over a lot of people with a libertarian bent who might be turned off by an anti-surveillance movement strongly associated with modern leftism. To what degree we risk alienating those leftists, I have no idea.
- the_af 7y agoThanks for the reply! What about people who are not politically conservative but are naive and/or not particularly aware of the history of the FBI and similar organizations?
- caconym_ 7y agoI think those people should absolutely be educated, but there's more to the issue and IMO high-level coverage should reflect that more as more than a footnote. I do agree that the history you're talking about ought to be a powerful factor for convincing certain groups that this matters. In the end I'm just one person, in my bubble just like everybody else. I could be totally wrong. What I'm saying is just based on my own observations of how people respond to partisan issues, and unfortunately social justice is a partisan issue.
- Spooky23 7y agoThere are very few actual conservatives these days. You have religious fanatics and reactionaries focused on maximizing resource extraction. The funny thing is that these folks who think they have nothing to hide are under a high degree of surveillance if they are a player of any kind. Lockstep compliance with the party platform is required.