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An obvious counterpoint is that the conspiracy was exposed, by Snowden. I think the lesson here is that a "conspiracy" can exist as long as all of its particip

An obvious counterpoint is that the conspiracy was exposed, by Snowden. I think the lesson here is that a "conspiracy" can exist as long as all of its participants believe they are morally in the right. The people involved in the NSA dragnet believed in the cause; when a non-believer (Snowden) got involved, the gig was up. It's easy to believe that a government agency would overstep its bounds to spy on people it (according to complex laws that well-meaning people misunderstand or disagree with) shouldn't. It's much, much less credible that a large number of US government employees conspired to, say, bomb the world trade center. A conspiracy like that would quickly enlist someone with moral qualms about it, and it just takes one to blow the whistle.

ALittleLight 5y ago
I don't think that's quite right. Most criminal conspiracies succeed as evidenced by the fact that most crimes aren't solved and most criminals aren't arrested. In fact, the larger your criminal organization, the less likely you are to go to prison. If I shot a passerby on the street, witnesses would be coming out of the woodwork. Friends or family would identify me by surveillance tape or report my strange behavior. Conversely, if a gang in Baltimore kills some guy, nobody will come forward. Let's not even get started on cartels. Instead, I think it's much more apt to say that whether or not a conspiracy will be betrayed depends a lot on what will happen to the traitor/whistleblower. If you want to turn in an evil, murderous, criminal organization, you'd better be willing to die or flee somewhere beyond their grasp. That bravery needs to be combined with an ability to get compelling evidence to the people who need to see it.
fedreserved 5y ago
Just for the sake of argument. Whistleblowing on spying on citizens is one thing. You can expect to go to prison for that one. Whistleblowing if you were apart of bombing the world trade center, I'd expect you to get dealt with Lee Harvey Oswald style. Someone posted this a month or 2 back The lone gunmen pilot. Created by x files creator. First episode aired march 2001. The plot of the pilot is the us intelligence was going to override a plane and fly it into the world trade center. https://youtu.be/FcZ6HXIOmYE https://youtu.be/FcZ6HXIOmYE

ALittleLight 5y ago

I don't think that's quite right. Most criminal conspiracies succeed as evidenced by the fact that most crimes aren't solved and most criminals aren't arrested. In fact, the larger your criminal organization, the less likely you are to go to prison. If I shot a passerby on the street, witnesses would be coming out of the woodwork. Friends or family would identify me by surveillance tape or report my strange behavior. Conversely, if a gang in Baltimore kills some guy, nobody will come forward. Let's not even get started on cartels. Instead, I think it's much more apt to say that whether or not a conspiracy will be betrayed depends a lot on what will happen to the traitor/whistleblower. If you want to turn in an evil, murderous, criminal organization, you'd better be willing to die or flee somewhere beyond their grasp. That bravery needs to be combined with an ability to get compelling evidence to the people who need to see it.

fedreserved 5y ago

Just for the sake of argument. Whistleblowing on spying on citizens is one thing. You can expect to go to prison for that one. Whistleblowing if you were apart of bombing the world trade center, I'd expect you to get dealt with Lee Harvey Oswald style. Someone posted this a month or 2 back The lone gunmen pilot. Created by x files creator. First episode aired march 2001. The plot of the pilot is the us intelligence was going to override a plane and fly it into the world trade center. https://youtu.be/FcZ6HXIOmYE https://youtu.be/FcZ6HXIOmYE