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I want Snowden to be pardoned. And I think the data collection network was both illegal and morally wrong. But that doesn't make me believe these kinds of arti

I want Snowden to be pardoned. And I think the data collection network was both illegal and morally wrong. But that doesn't make me believe these kinds of articles. Most of these types of articles for the past numerous years have the same formula. Case X proves it was useful, case X is determined to not be relevant to the data collection methods, typically by someone biased. And it's always a judge out of one of the most liberal places. (and I'm liberal / democrat) It's weaksauce, and most of the people here are unwilling to see past it because they also agree with my first paragraph. We can have freedom and "live more dangerously". That's pretty much the entire point of how America came to be. We shouldn't spy on all of our people - and yes that comes with consequences. That's not the same as spying on specific people that we know will or may cause harm.

hash872 6y ago
I basically agree with your sentiment, but that's where politics (literally- persuading enough fellow citizens or legislators to your point of view) comes in. People think politics is this dirty, awful business, but it determines the legality or illegality of these kinds of programs. If you want to effectively advocate for change, you have to play the political system. And, telling the general public that PRISM isn't effective has a decent shot at getting these practices outlawed. Telling the general public 'sure, a few terrorists will get through here and there, but that's the price of living in freedom' is pretty much guaranteed to get you the opposite result. You have to focus on effective persuasion, and regular people won't/can't think about hard tradeoffs