I find that hard to believe when he had this job that he would act like it was all a big surprise for him. The majority of the public support what he did, thought the government doesn't. Lots of people nowadays think stuff like this should happen more often. I personally don't think that when you have that much power and you're that close to the government, you do it all out of the goodness of your own heart. I dunno, maybe I've just been brainwashed.
Even if he did it for publicity, who cares? He's exposed just how far the government are willing to invade your privacy for the sake of "security". Regardless of how you see him, it's pretty heroic to give up your entire life in exchange for running from your own government because you fear political prosecution for enlightening people that their liberties are being eroded. Also what the hell is all this about leaking info to the Chinese? We're not at war with China, we're under no threat from China. All of this tension that's arisen between the West and China is based almost purely on paranoia stirred up by the media and isn't seriously recognized politically. China are fast developing into a super-power, that is true. However...who the fuck cares? That doesn't mean direct conflict with the West, it means a more competitive world economy but that's basically it. I see no indication from the Chinese that they intend to start war with the West. Furthermore, Edward Snowden has fled to Hong Kong which is almost an entirely different country to China. The differences from the rest of China in terms of democracy, human rights, economy and overall quality of life are vast. It's perhaps worthwhile doing your research on Hong Kong before you start suggesting that Edward Snowden has some sort of agenda to leak information on the US to the Chinese, if he wanted to do that then Hong Kong would not be the place to go.
I'm assuming you posted that to show that the actual number of people being looked into by the NSA is/was small. That's a fair point. But at where do we draw the line exactly? 5,000 requests in half a year averages to 10,000 a year. You seem to be okay with that. What about 100,000? 500,000? Over a million? Where do we draw the incredibly arbitrary line? Or are you always okay with it.
My point of said post was to show that the hype that EVERYONE will be watched is ridiculous. I'm not okay with it, but I'm taking it from a common sense standpoint instead of letting fear take over me.
Unforutnately, the media, who I believe is controlled by those in power, glorifies and basks in it. There is no such thing as unbiased reporting anymore.
I mentioned a point like that to my dad, and he was like "I've traveled a lot, been in a lot of bad places, and seen a lot of bad things, so I'm perfectly ok with the government watching me." What are people's thoughts on that?
I personally don't care if my calls and such might be listened to. However, what Snowden did was prove that the government likes to keep it's citizens unaware of certain things, and that I'm not okay with. At what point are we going to just be regarded as a name and nothing more? If more things are decided on for us under our knowledge, we will be getting too close to that point.
This was news to you? Information Security is nothing new. There has always been Top Secret and Classified things.
You mean like the Manhattan project of the 40's? Or the Blackbird program of the 70's? Certain things are a secret for a reason and this is nothing new.
It is not news to me. Maybe I worded it wrong, but what I meant is that I'm not okay with someone deciding on things for me behind my back. Certain things are a secret for a reason, and that is very true. The last two sentences in the post you quoted should give you my answer.
Maybe it's just me, but I think Barack Obama, regardless of his political beliefs, is pretty sensible and a genuinely good person. Clearly, when he came into office after the 2008 election (when he was a skeptic of these kinds of programs), he saw something that changed his mind about the balance of security and privacy. Otherwise, he was a pathological liar during the 2008 campaign, which I don't think is the case. Obama obviously learned that these controversial techniques by the NSA do in fact save lives from terrorism. I love how everyone just assumes that this isn't the case when they don't have a shred of evidence to prove it. I think people should actually listen to Obama's press conference (someone posted it on the first page) with an open mind. Fact: The government is not literally listening in on our conversations. The only way they can do this is if they get permission from the courts, ala a search warrant in any other investigation. Fact: Not only do the courts know about this, but so does Congress. There's a debate to be had on whether or not the government should have told American citizens about the program, but the fact that they didn't doesn't mean they weren't being transparent. Honestly, as far as classified information goes, PRISM could have actually been far LESS transparent. Fact: According to Obama, who is not someone that just makes shit up like other politicians, this program has thwarted at least 50 plots of terrorism. So again, it saves lives. Whether or not it's justified or logical, when terror plots are carried out in western democracies, they have a far bigger impact on the world opposed to everyday domestic violence. Depending on the scale of the attack, an entire nation can be scarred for long periods of time after terrorist attacks. Hence why I'm not buying the argument that because they're so rare compared to other forms of violence that we shouldn't do anything about them.
Obama (government) apologists have some of the weirdest logic. The dude knowingly kills brown children in the Middle East with drone strikes and makes every civilian's life a living hell wondering if their neighborhood is going to explode today or not. He very clearly is a liar just like every president has been. They say what people want to hear and do the opposite while the elite media won't say peep about it. To find sources that aren't owned by the elite is very hard which is great for them because 99% of the US will have no clue what's going on in the world. Presidents commit atrocities because that's just how the game is played. They might seem different before their presidency, but that doesn't excuse them from anything. The evil trickles down through every branch of government. It's just guys and gals working together to obtain as much power and make as much money from the sheep by playing the game as well as they can. The president is a joke, congress is a joke, and anyone trying to justify their actions has very little idea of what's going on.
Sorry dude, but this sounds like something The Onion might have written. Obama has bullshitted his fair share during his campaigns and presidency, don't you worry. Also, the "fact" that the NSA needs a court warrant to listen to phone conversations is being disputed all over the place. The fact is, we don't know very many facts about this program. Which is a bad thing.