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I remember the days, my friend, when people got charged with what they did rather than with what they said. I am feeling very old suddenly. The combination of i

I remember the days, my friend, when people got charged with what they did rather than with what they said. I am feeling very old suddenly. The combination of introducing new thought and speech crimes, while recording everything everybody says and writes, brings us squarely into an unchartered new era of despotism. No doubt this case figures prominently in the handful of statistics of "prevented terrorism attacks", used to justify the NSA activities. There is a danger here of a vicious downward spiral, whereby such cases are energetically pursued because they are interpreted as successes of the surveillance, used to boost the surveillance and thus to create even more such cases.

rayiner 13y ago
Those days never existed, people just got worked up about different stupid shit. Also: what's the point of bringing the NSA into this? Some Canadian lady saw his Facebook post and called the police.
- cloverich 13y ago
  > Also: what's the point of bringing the NSA into this? Some Canadian lady saw his Facebook post and called the police Because its easy to draw a line between: 1. Some lady see's stupid thing you posted, you go to jail. 2. NSA Analyst finds some stupid thing you posted (at any point in the past?), you go to jail.
- acuozzo 13y ago
  > Some Canadian lady saw his Facebook post and called the police. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian,_Texas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian,_Texas
  - droidist2 13y ago
    Wow, that's quite a setup for confusion. Who named that town, Abbott and Costello?
criley2 13y ago
History bias. If you're a boomer, then you were alive during the Cold War and the red scare, periods where surveillance and crimes of "words" were arguably as bad or worse. If not before that, then you're greatest generation, and you're obviously not Japanese because you would be singing a very different tune about American civil liberties and being charged for "crimes" had you lived through internment. These examples go back as long as there is civilization... I don't buy your "things used to be better" nostalgia. Everything looks better decades later, but it doesn't make it true...
- SagelyGuru 13y ago
  >I don't buy your "things used to be better" nostalgia. Everything looks better decades later, but it doesn't make it true... Of course things were better. The "laws" under which this boy is being hounded did not exist. Plus many other similar new laws.
  - criley2 13y ago
    Again, your mypoia to history does not make today worse. Widespread, blatant, unmonitored wiretapping has occurred in our history many times. Whether during the Cold War, or before, in the earlier days of telephony when checks and balances were quite literally impossible, the government has absolutely taken full advantage of the prevailing technology without respect to Constitutional rights. You can argue that the technology makes the scale worse, but the same people are making the same decisions they always have.

rayiner 13y ago

Those days never existed, people just got worked up about different stupid shit. Also: what's the point of bringing the NSA into this? Some Canadian lady saw his Facebook post and called the police.

cloverich 13y ago
> Also: what's the point of bringing the NSA into this? Some Canadian lady saw his Facebook post and called the police Because its easy to draw a line between: 1. Some lady see's stupid thing you posted, you go to jail. 2. NSA Analyst finds some stupid thing you posted (at any point in the past?), you go to jail.
acuozzo 13y ago
> Some Canadian lady saw his Facebook post and called the police. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian,_Texas http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian,_Texas
- droidist2 13y ago
  Wow, that's quite a setup for confusion. Who named that town, Abbott and Costello?

criley2 13y ago

History bias. If you're a boomer, then you were alive during the Cold War and the red scare, periods where surveillance and crimes of "words" were arguably as bad or worse. If not before that, then you're greatest generation, and you're obviously not Japanese because you would be singing a very different tune about American civil liberties and being charged for "crimes" had you lived through internment. These examples go back as long as there is civilization... I don't buy your "things used to be better" nostalgia. Everything looks better decades later, but it doesn't make it true...

SagelyGuru 13y ago
>I don't buy your "things used to be better" nostalgia. Everything looks better decades later, but it doesn't make it true... Of course things were better. The "laws" under which this boy is being hounded did not exist. Plus many other similar new laws.
- criley2 13y ago
  Again, your mypoia to history does not make today worse. Widespread, blatant, unmonitored wiretapping has occurred in our history many times. Whether during the Cold War, or before, in the earlier days of telephony when checks and balances were quite literally impossible, the government has absolutely taken full advantage of the prevailing technology without respect to Constitutional rights. You can argue that the technology makes the scale worse, but the same people are making the same decisions they always have.