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15 years ago believing in the NSA fiber taps made you an insane conspiracy theorist. Save your judgement for something else.

• kurthr 4y ago
  Perhaps you could argue that in the 90s, but no it was already the opposite of a conspiracy theory by 2000. The idea that not a single element of the tens of thousands (many TLAs) dedicated to US national security and monitoring was doing fiber taps (in SF or elsewhere) would imply that not a single one who had means (they were known to be doing it in other countries) motive (because they wanted metadata if nothing else) and opportunity (National security letters were a thing even then) would do their jobs. I mean... maybe at Home Depot, but not in the Federal Government where you take an oath to the constitution! Snowden changed a few people's minds, but not the elite.
  • aaaaaaaaata 4y ago
    > no it was already the opposite of a conspiracy theory by 2000. No, it wasn't, as someone who had dozens of knock-down, drag-out arguments well after this time period.
    • teawrecks 4y ago
      You can have a "knock down drag out" argument about climate change today, doesn't change the fact that we have had rock solid evidence of it for decades. X-Files in the 90s was basically a meme about three letter agencies that everyone knew had been spying on everything they could since before the cold war. You were only a conspiracy theorist if you thought they had alien tech or controlled the weather.
    • GekkePrutser 4y ago
      Some echelon incidents such as the Airbus controversy were reported as far back as 1995 in mainstream media.