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All American technologists are supporting the surveillance state, indirectly but tangibly. Would you ask all of us to give up our careers and skills completely?
by javert 13y ago
All American technologists are supporting the surveillance state, indirectly but tangibly. Would you ask all of us to give up our careers and skills completely?
There is no point in sacrificing yourself when there is nothing to actually be gained by doing so.
If somebody could organize a general strike of enough of the civillian workforce (especially engineers) until the NSA is banned, that would be worthwile. If a few of us quit sporadically, there will be no gain; it will just be a loss.
So, I wouldn't blame the individual engineers that work in the defense industry and end up contributing to these projects more directly. Nor do I blame the poor folk who end up getting a job screening me at the TSA checkpoint (violating the 4th Amendment is literally their job), though I used to be mad at them. We are all victims. Collective action could accomplish something, but individually, we only each have one life to live; we can't just throw it away for nothing in return.
- MrMan 13y ago"GIVE ME LIBERTY, OR, well whatever you've got, I am fine with whatever."
- javert 13y agoI used to be really not know how to handle the fact that the Founding Fathers started a revolution, and I haven't been even trying to start one. I mean, they wouldn't put up with this shit! They rebelled over a freaking stamp tax! Then I realized that my thinking was disconnected from reality. There is a HUGE difference between my situation, and that of the Founding Fathers. They knew that they could win. They were selfish people. They would not have started the Revolution if there had been no chance of actually gaining something and actually winning. We cannot win, at least, not that way. The only way we can probably hope to win is by speaking up and slowly changing the culture. We are far closer to 1984 than the Founding Fathers were.
- sneak 13y ago> All American technologists are supporting the surveillance state, indirectly but tangibly. Technically, all American taxpayers are.