3 ms·

"Just go along with the system"... "It's the price you pay to live in a modern society". It sounds exactly like something out of a government PR handbook. We've

"Just go along with the system"... "It's the price you pay to live in a modern society". It sounds exactly like something out of a government PR handbook. We've heard the same song and dance from organizations like the NSA when they were illegally spying on people. We don't "live" in society, we "are" the society. Law enforcement are our public servants and have a responsibility to the people they serve. Every time you refuse an invasive search, or protest something the government is doing illegally, you give other people the courage to stand up too. At some point you reach a critical mass and things change.

imiric 4y ago
I wish I shared your optimism. Look, I sympathize with your point of view. I just prefer to not make my life anymore stressful by fighting for things I realistically can't change. I choose my battles carefully by weighing my chances of success over the amount of discomfort it would cause, and in this case, I think waging a personal fight against governments is ultimately futile. The government already has my biometric data and they can use any number of surveillance methods to track me without my explicit consent. I take this for granted by being part of modern society. How do you propose a regular citizen could fight against programs like PRISM, or whatever other shady tech we have no knowledge of? We're not all willing to become Snowden, and live in a cave somewhere. Getting politicians elected to wage this fight for me is also relatively useless. The best I can do is make this slightly more difficult by choosing to use technology that—to the best of my knowledge—protects my privacy. Most people won't even make this sacrifice. So I think my time is better spent educating others into doing the same, rather than advocating for a fight with Goliath, which even less people will be on board with.

imiric 4y ago

I wish I shared your optimism. Look, I sympathize with your point of view. I just prefer to not make my life anymore stressful by fighting for things I realistically can't change. I choose my battles carefully by weighing my chances of success over the amount of discomfort it would cause, and in this case, I think waging a personal fight against governments is ultimately futile. The government already has my biometric data and they can use any number of surveillance methods to track me without my explicit consent. I take this for granted by being part of modern society. How do you propose a regular citizen could fight against programs like PRISM, or whatever other shady tech we have no knowledge of? We're not all willing to become Snowden, and live in a cave somewhere. Getting politicians elected to wage this fight for me is also relatively useless. The best I can do is make this slightly more difficult by choosing to use technology that—to the best of my knowledge—protects my privacy. Most people won't even make this sacrifice. So I think my time is better spent educating others into doing the same, rather than advocating for a fight with Goliath, which even less people will be on board with.