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I don't think the public will get it until a major Hollywood movie presents a compelling narrative. People understand Minority Report. People don't understand P
by logn 12y ago
I don't think the public will get it until a major Hollywood movie presents a compelling narrative. People understand Minority Report. People don't understand Powerpoints released sporadically over multiple years.
Also part of the problem is that the Snowden leaks, while full of technical detail, are devoid of almost all human elements.
The other concerning element of all this is that even people who understand all of this fully, they still support it. So in some respects, the public is fully complicit. Maybe a similar dynamic to how whites accepted slavery.
- xnull2guest 12y agoI would be partial to this thesis, but I find it to be more a failing of the media. From Wikipedia: "In a democratic society, however, access to free information plays a central role in creating a system of checks and balance, and in distributing power equally amongst governments, businesses, individuals, and other social entities. Access to verifiable information gathered by independent media sources, which adhere to journalistic standards, can also be of service to ordinary citizens, by empowering them with the tools they need in order to participate in the political process." People payed attention to the news during the Snowden disclosures. But it wasn't news worth paying attention to. There's a good history of media partnerships with TLA agencies - I'm just going to leave some links. I'm willing to write about it but this time of night I'm not prepared to spend the time curating something comprehensive. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mockingbird [2] http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/20/us/20generals.html [3] http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/another-runaway-general-army-deploys-psy-ops-on-u-s-senators-20110223?print=true http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/news/another-runaway-ge... [4] https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/04/former-l-times-reporter-cleared-stories-cia-publication/ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/09/04/former-l-times... [5] http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED-The-HB-Gary-Email-That-Should-Concern-Us-All http://www.dailykos.com/story/2011/02/16/945768/-UPDATED-The... [6] https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/14/manipulating-online-polls-ways-british-spies-seek-control-internet/ https://firstlook.org/theintercept/2014/07/14/manipulating-o... [7] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing#Business_and_adoption https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Astroturfing#Business_and_adop... [8] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBGary#Astroturfing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HBGary#Astroturfing [9] http://www.globalissues.org/article/461/media-reporting-journalism-and-propaganda http://www.globalissues.org/article/461/media-reporting-jour... [10] http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/09/AR2006040900890.html http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04... [11] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abu_Musab_al-Zarqawi [12] http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/03/heroes-error?page=1 http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2006/03/heroes-error?pag...
- treerock 12y agoThey probably need to present how the data can and is actually being used in a way that hits people personally. The UK phone hacking 'scandal'[1] showed that the public doesn't really care that much about phones being hacked if it ends up revealing corruption or crime or celebrity gossip. The real big deal was when it came out that they were accessing the voicemail of a missing 13 year old girl, who was later found dead. [1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacking_scandal https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/News_International_phone_hacki...