You are Prolly an Extremist to the NSA

[lisati]

Who is this "Prolly" person?

[waterlubber]

Is George Orwell a pychic? Already, people post their entire lives to falsebook and twitter. NSA picks that up, aggregates, etc. I mean, cmon, the government SACRIFICING FREEDOM for SECURITY. Herm. (Read 1984, the first half only, the second half is weird)

[jsland]

One of the main problems I see is that of "Forever preparing, forever unprepared"*. Pouring $100 Billion + annually down the drain here in 2014 to intercept and archive all possible data does not necessarily make us safer. Most of that effort is for a few fleeting thoughts by those in positions of organizational power that they're in control when in fact they're just along for the ride.

Throwing out much of the U.S. 4th amendment and setting up secret courts and prisons should in time be looked back upon as Joe McCarthy era like.

In the mean time the U.S. and other nations in the game, notably China, are taking what could be very productive people out of the work force. Individuals that could be building their communities and culture are now sponging up tax dollars from productive people in order to create STASI Nation where spying on your neighbor is a way of life. It's corrosive and in nearly all cases could be more effectively duplicated by conventional approaches within the rule of law.

It's disconcerting to think most of the U.S. founding fathers would now be labled terrorists and radical liberals. Think Thomas Jefferson and how the press might characterize him. Personally I thank these guys regularly that they decided they'd had a bellyfull of British regulation.

* Frank Herbert

[Irihapeti]

Closed for staff review.

[cariboo]

After discussion amongst the staff, this thread will stay closed because it has drifted into a political discussion. From the Forum Code of Conduct.

Politics: This topic has caused serious problems in the past, and as such is subject to tight control. Discussion of the politics of open source is permissible within the Ubuntu/Linux and Other OS forum, no other political posting is permitted in any form in any other area of the forum.
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