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Yes, the worst part about the security state/NSA story is listening to and reading those who are most upset about it. They get on an emotional tear and play loo
by DanielBMarkham 13y ago
Yes, the worst part about the security state/NSA story is listening to and reading those who are most upset about it. They get on an emotional tear and play loose with facts and sources. This hurts much more than it helps, because it begins to paint anybody concerned about what we've created as a crank. I'm much more concerned about the ranters than I am about those that are apathetic.
This is an issue to be intellectually passionate about, not emotionally passionate. It's something I have to keep reminding myself of daily.
News outlets and bloggers are all too willing to play telephone and translate emotional energy into pageviews. That's not a good thing for the discussion.
- fnordfnordfnord 13y agoAs soon as you boil it down into boring work, it will be forgotten about by the proles.
- DanielBMarkham 13y agoThe problem with this strategy is that all you get is a mindless angry mob. This the Egypt scenario: everybody knows things are broken, but nobody can agree on what it's supposed to look like. Contrast this with the Federalist Papers, where an intellectual debate was held to vet solutions. You don't want "any change" to take the place of "fix what's broken" By dumbing this down, you make what could be a productive movement into something much more dangerous.