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Actually, this case is an excellent example of why that is probably a conspiracy theory that does not align with reality.

orangepurple 4y ago
The term "conspiracy theory" is a psyop to auto-discredit anything labeled as one.
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  That notion is just a conspiracy theory by Big Conspiracy to push more conspiracy theories. ;)
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  Hilariously, this is a conspiracy theory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory#Origin_and_Usage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory#Origin_and_U... > The earliest known usage was by the American author Charles Astor Bristed, in a letter to the editor published in The New York Times on January 11, 1863. > The term "conspiracy theory" is itself the subject of a conspiracy theory, which posits that the term was popularized by the CIA in order to discredit conspiratorial believers, particularly critics of the Warren Commission, by making them a target of ridicule.
  - testTED 4y ago
    > the term was popularized by the CIA in order to discredit conspiratorial believers, particularly critics of the Warren Commission, by making them a target of ridicule. Who popularized it is subjective. What isn't subjective: the CIA indeed sent out a memo about this. It marked an increase in the use of the term in popular media publications. You can find it and read it.
    - ceejayoz 4y ago
      I just love that you lopped off half a sentence to invert its meaning to support your conspiracy theory. That's just beautiful. > the CIA indeed sent out a memo about this Wow, the CIA noticed something and sent a memo?
      - testTED 4y ago
        It noticed people questioning an official story, and it referred to them as conspiracy theorists.
testTED 4y ago
Yes, all those drives in Utah are just for appearances.
- ceejayoz 4y ago
  AT&T and the NSA are not the same thing. AT&T is almost certainly not storing every text message long-term. The NSA likely is. It wouldn't be surprising if that's via a direct PRISM-style integration, but it still means subpoenaing AT&T for old texts is likely to not be productive. (As it was not productive in this particular case.) Subpoena the NSA and they'll say "no, for national security reasons".
  - shadowgovt 4y ago
    I'm not even sure we can extrapolate that the NSA is storing anything like every text message long-term (as opposed to metadata, or samples, or the full transcripts of individuals targeted for investigation, or a machine learning trained weights set to flag messages that indicate someone should go on the targeted-for-investigation list). 6 billion text messages are sent per day in the US. That's about the volume of Google web searches, and I know from experience Google doesn't have the capacity to log every search or the logs of evaluation of every search. If Google lacks the capacity, I suspect the NSA lacks the capacity.
    - GauntletWizard 4y ago
      Google absolutely does have the capacity to log every search query, and does - and I say this as someone who has worked with that dataset, if only for training purposes. 6 billion SMS messages, at a max length of 160 characters, is 1 terrabyte of raw text. I think that the NSA has the cash to shell out $100 for a new 1TB hard drive every day... (not even including compression, of which it is highly, highly compressible)

orangepurple 4y ago

The term "conspiracy theory" is a psyop to auto-discredit anything labeled as one.

shadowgovt 4y ago
That notion is just a conspiracy theory by Big Conspiracy to push more conspiracy theories. ;)
ceejayoz 4y ago
Hilariously, this is a conspiracy theory. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory#Origin_and_Usage https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Conspiracy_theory#Origin_and_U... > The earliest known usage was by the American author Charles Astor Bristed, in a letter to the editor published in The New York Times on January 11, 1863. > The term "conspiracy theory" is itself the subject of a conspiracy theory, which posits that the term was popularized by the CIA in order to discredit conspiratorial believers, particularly critics of the Warren Commission, by making them a target of ridicule.
- testTED 4y ago
  > the term was popularized by the CIA in order to discredit conspiratorial believers, particularly critics of the Warren Commission, by making them a target of ridicule. Who popularized it is subjective. What isn't subjective: the CIA indeed sent out a memo about this. It marked an increase in the use of the term in popular media publications. You can find it and read it.
  - ceejayoz 4y ago
    I just love that you lopped off half a sentence to invert its meaning to support your conspiracy theory. That's just beautiful. > the CIA indeed sent out a memo about this Wow, the CIA noticed something and sent a memo?
    - testTED 4y ago
      It noticed people questioning an official story, and it referred to them as conspiracy theorists.

testTED 4y ago

Yes, all those drives in Utah are just for appearances.

ceejayoz 4y ago
AT&T and the NSA are not the same thing. AT&T is almost certainly not storing every text message long-term. The NSA likely is. It wouldn't be surprising if that's via a direct PRISM-style integration, but it still means subpoenaing AT&T for old texts is likely to not be productive. (As it was not productive in this particular case.) Subpoena the NSA and they'll say "no, for national security reasons".
- shadowgovt 4y ago
  I'm not even sure we can extrapolate that the NSA is storing anything like every text message long-term (as opposed to metadata, or samples, or the full transcripts of individuals targeted for investigation, or a machine learning trained weights set to flag messages that indicate someone should go on the targeted-for-investigation list). 6 billion text messages are sent per day in the US. That's about the volume of Google web searches, and I know from experience Google doesn't have the capacity to log every search or the logs of evaluation of every search. If Google lacks the capacity, I suspect the NSA lacks the capacity.
  - GauntletWizard 4y ago
    Google absolutely does have the capacity to log every search query, and does - and I say this as someone who has worked with that dataset, if only for training purposes. 6 billion SMS messages, at a max length of 160 characters, is 1 terrabyte of raw text. I think that the NSA has the cash to shell out $100 for a new 1TB hard drive every day... (not even including compression, of which it is highly, highly compressible)