"The US is getting there" Hmm... last I checked, I can protest, sue the government, flip a bird to the president and question authorities when they pull me ove

"The US is getting there" Hmm... last I checked, I can protest, sue the government, flip a bird to the president and question authorities when they pull me over for a probable cause, go to court, have a fair trail, escalate to supreme court, all while being able to have the right to vote politicians out, hold free press and have the freedom of speech. I am not saying that there aren't issues in the US, and we should fearlessly debate, take action and challenge. Organizations such as EFF are doing that. But let's not compare this with China to smear out the massive surveillance program China has going for them. Please keep these issues separate. It is frustrating to be able to not criticize the Chinese government as people bring up issues about US government. Foo is bad, but look at Bar and Baz - they are doing bad things too. So, Foo is justified? In general, digitization is worrying for every nation because it may have benevolent cause today, but information doesn't rot and it will bite us decades into the future if not today. In US, in EU, in Africa, in Asia, in the world.