graedus

31 ms·

271.
by graedus 13y ago
> Your points are well-taken, but in a democracy it's a hard argument to make to say: "people don't really think what they think they think because of the media." It's not that hard an argument -- there have been
272.
by graedus 13y ago
I won't deny many such examples exist, but you can't deny that the MSM is nevertheless an influence on large swaths of Americans. Even those that are not so gullible as to accept what they hear on the news as fact unquestioningly
273.
by graedus 13y ago
> Neither party cares about the issue because the people don't care And why don't the people care? Corporate-owned media has a huge amount of influence on what people care about. But in the never ending search for ever increasi
274.
by graedus 13y ago
The PRISM program, which requires cooperation from service providers, is just one of the methods they use to collect user data. "Upstream" collection (beam splitters on fiber, etc) is separate and distinct from this, and yields a
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by graedus 13y ago
Really great talk, thanks for the link.
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by graedus 13y ago
Like "terrorism", it's only "torture" when the other guys do it, while we introduce a fresh new euphemism to describe our own actions. The definitions of the words change each time the US acts.
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by graedus 13y ago
Yeah, I thought so too. It looks like nytimes and wired ran the story on June 1, 2012 [0][1]. I think the only new piece of information is that the NSA specifically co-wrote it with Israel, according to Snowden. [0] http://www.
278.
by graedus 13y ago
Because a big chunk of what we once might have thought of as the "left" in the US are really just cheerleaders for the blue team, without paying any attention to actual policy. Of the remainder, a lot of people seem to buy the nar
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by graedus 13y ago
Well put, really puts into perspective how incredibly out of proportion and punitive this measure was.
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by graedus 13y ago
I see your reasoning, but the "wider America" of which you speak - or at least a large portion of it - would still be calling for him to be tossed in prison (or worse) for being a "traitor" after he turned himself in. I
281.
by graedus 13y ago
> [Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-Fla.)] added: “These are countries that violate press freedoms every day. And yet [Snowden]’s seeking political asylum in those very countries where . . . if he were to pull a Snowden in these countries, th
282.
by graedus 13y ago
Indeed, just like it's OK for top officials to leak about what a terrific success the drone program is and how it doesn't kill any civilians (NB: anyone killed by a drone is considered a "combatant" by definition in the
283.
by graedus 13y ago
I didn't catch it all the first time either; luckily it is 6 seconds long and loops continuously, so you can take as long as you like to dissect it (or go to their site if you want to read about it instead). I think it's an effec
284.
by graedus 13y ago
Huh? He didn't assert that the NSA has omniscience and the ability to instantly target, decrypt and analyze every piece of digital communication in the world. What he's talking about is the broad collection and storage of this d
285.
by graedus 13y ago
Wait, since when was the point of smearing the leaker to affect how the NSA is managed? The problem is such smears, when made by politicians, are broadcast and reported upon nationally and end up diluting/derailing the important dialog
286.
by graedus 13y ago
David Brooks is among the most disgustingly boot-licking, power-worshiping authoritarians I've ever read in print, so his reaction here was not surprising at all. As always, here he is whining that people won't just shut up and t
287.
by graedus 13y ago
I had to look that up. Massively Parallel Processing.
288.
by graedus 13y ago
I can understand that distinction, although I'd argue that pasting the guideline without comment to another user in the context of this particular issue implied that your stance was that this issue was one where the guideline applied. You m
289.
by graedus 13y ago
I don't think dfc's first reply or niggler's first reply contain any aggression or hostility whatsoever. As you said, pasting the guideline having done the opposite hours earlier was contradictory, so that was pointed out. I should say it d