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After reading this, I can't help but think that once and for all, we need to free Brad Manning and stop the NSA. The US is just really bad and the sheeple need

After reading this, I can't help but think that once and for all, we need to free Brad Manning and stop the NSA. The US is just really bad and the sheeple need to wake up and stop listening to the media who are telling them lies. Only people like us on the internet know what's really going on.

InclinedPlane 13y ago
This is an unhelpful viewpoint. In fact, I'd say it's actively harmful. It's one thing to rein in fantasies that we live in a dystopian, fascist, police state. That's not the case. In fact, today in the US we have a quite amazing degree of individual liberty compared to the historical average, even compared to several standard deviations above the historical average. And we should remember that. But it's another thing to imagine that there aren't serious issues at play here, and that there aren't serious threats to our individual liberty on numerous fronts. To try to play things off as though everything's fine. Things are not fine. There are very disturbing abuses of power happening. And even more disturbing trends. Legally. Socio-culturally. And in business as well. If we ignore them until they rise to the level of seriousness of a dystopian, fascist, police state (or something just as bad in some other form) we will have ignored them for far too long.
- frozenport 13y ago
  I am getting extremely weary of users who have very little post history flooding HN with PRISM related anti-American vitriol. I recall organizations like Russia Today being caught for registering users on youtube that promoted their viewpoints, gave up-votes, and voiced extreme opinions: making their extremest lies look more legitimate. I don't know who these new people are but the quality of their posts is well below our standard and their users names appear to be a play on words.
  - ambassador451 13y ago
    I will defer to your judgement on what is up to 'our standards' since your account is less than a year old.
    - deleted 13y ago
      [deleted]

InclinedPlane 13y ago

This is an unhelpful viewpoint. In fact, I'd say it's actively harmful. It's one thing to rein in fantasies that we live in a dystopian, fascist, police state. That's not the case. In fact, today in the US we have a quite amazing degree of individual liberty compared to the historical average, even compared to several standard deviations above the historical average. And we should remember that. But it's another thing to imagine that there aren't serious issues at play here, and that there aren't serious threats to our individual liberty on numerous fronts. To try to play things off as though everything's fine. Things are not fine. There are very disturbing abuses of power happening. And even more disturbing trends. Legally. Socio-culturally. And in business as well. If we ignore them until they rise to the level of seriousness of a dystopian, fascist, police state (or something just as bad in some other form) we will have ignored them for far too long.

frozenport 13y ago
I am getting extremely weary of users who have very little post history flooding HN with PRISM related anti-American vitriol. I recall organizations like Russia Today being caught for registering users on youtube that promoted their viewpoints, gave up-votes, and voiced extreme opinions: making their extremest lies look more legitimate. I don't know who these new people are but the quality of their posts is well below our standard and their users names appear to be a play on words.
- ambassador451 13y ago
  I will defer to your judgement on what is up to 'our standards' since your account is less than a year old.
  - deleted 13y ago
    [deleted]