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Frankly, U.S. Congressmen don't care what foreigners think about U.S. surveillance policy. Frankly, U.S. Congressmen don't care what Americans think about U.S.

• dragonwriter 13y ago
  > Frankly, U.S. Congressmen don't care what Americans think about U.S. surveillance policy. They clearly do, because they spend quite a bit of effort trying to shape what Americans think about it, which is inconsistent with not caring what Americans think.
  • rosser 13y ago
    They're concerned with they want Americans to think about surveillance. That's markedly different from caring what we actually think.
    • dragonwriter 13y ago
      > They're concerned with they want Americans to think about surveillance. That's markedly different from caring what we actually think. Having a desire for somone to think a particular thing about a subject is exactly caring what they actually think about a subject. I think the distinction you want to draw is more between being influenced by what Americans actually think, on the one hand, and attempting to influence what Americans actually think, on the other. But then, again, the only rational reason for members of Congress to try to influence what Americans think is because they think that what Americans actually think impacts the prospects for their political agenda, e.g., by influencing their likelihood of getting elected or influencing the behavior of other members of Congress or the President (perhaps by influencing those actors electoral prospects), so, really, I think that even that distinction is somewhat false. The reason politicians want to shape opinions is because politicians actions do respond to opinions.
      • abofh 13y ago
        I believe the hypothesis is stated as "Foreign legs good, American legs better"
• adventured 13y ago
  US Congressmen care about what the money thinks about the US surveillance policy. The tech industry has more money now than anybody else outside of finance, including the oil industry. It's that simple. Use it.