What a complete tool:
I dunno Guys... I mean, it is the NSA. They have an extremely important job to do. I'd rather they play unfair and find terrorists and criminals than respect everyone's "right to privacy". They don't publicly share or arrest people for most of the petty criminal things they found "illegally." Who else is going to protect us from Terrorists trying to blow **** up, spread disease or other.
We have the most powerful, well funded military in the history of the world. We also have weapons systems capable of wiping entire populations from the map without ever sending an American into a combat zone. Had either of these tools been properly used in recent decades, "terror" and "war" would not be part of the American vernacular. Sadly, since WWII, American leadership in warfare has lost its spine – to the detriment of everyone with the misfortune of being drawn into combat.
The idea that the NSA is the only thing keeping us safe from terrorists is such a hilariously misinformed notion that it borders on the edge of parody. That they provide a sense of security from Islamic terrorism (see: the on-going religious holy war between Islam and Christianity) is an even bigger joke. They do their best to prevent the inevitable, but the threat of terror only ends with the death of the enemy (see: the actual rules of the game). The NSA is also by far not the only "spy" agency running around watching people. The Navy, Army, and Air Force do the same gig across the globe. Only, they focus on the bad guys.
So many 'hackers' and sickos are just up to no good, using these tools for nefarious purposes. I know most of the world would rather stick their heads in the sand and let their neighbors continue to do whatever so long as it doesn't affect them.
The irony emanating from this thought could vaporize a small insect. The whole reason laws and regulations exist is because people, on average, will do bad things when they fear no consequence. Violating legal rights under the premise of the ends justifying the means is the whole reason it was deemed necessary to write down the rights in the first place.
Im sure we've all read enough books to fear a totalitarian state which watches our every move but we are a far cry from that right now. Screw the illusion of privacy, if everything and everyone was more transparent we could cut down on alot of crime and focus on more pressing threats.
If by 'books' you mean history books, yes. The U.S. government is only special because of the uniqueness of its restrictive elements and the principles they were crafted upon. Beyond that, the U.S. gov is scarcely different from the government of any other empire that has risen, declined and/or fallen in history. They rise to power, corruption and ineptitude grow cancerous over time, they collapse and are then restructured. The overreach of the U.S. government and the complacency of the American people will continue to spread until something breaks and this nation once again descends into civil unrest and martial law.
Given the size and scope of the house of cards that has been created over the past 100 years and the Islamist threat, it's anyone's guess to what the actual "flashpoint" event will be. I do know, however, that people like yourself will be completely blindsided and genuinely bewildered by it. It'll be a real left-fielder, as it were.
So yeah, just had to play devils advocate, even though im a pretty private person myself, sry if that offends any of these "extremists"
This isn't playing devil's advocate. Playing devil's advocate is when you present a coherent argument for the opposing view for the sake of a more complete understanding of the issue. What you've done here is demonstrated the fear and absence of principles that defines the average Millennial. If this was your intent, bravo. But I strongly suspect your "advocacy" goes well beyond intellectual thoroughness.
maybe some of those creepers/crazos should spend less time moulding tin foil hats and cleaning guns and hating on people who actually work to make us safe.
Nobody displeased with the U.S. government and its various "Tentacles of Love and Caring" is critical of those who work to make us safe. If anything, we are culturally conditioned to worship the very ground they walk upon. The group of people we are upset with, that we are becoming increasingly intolerant of, are those in the head offices who are consistently sending those defenders orders that directly contradict the values they are supposed to uphold and enable the very tyranny they were intended to protect against.
It isn't the messenger we're upset with: we're upset with the men and women writing the instructions on the letter.
Ordinarily, I wouldn't spend so much time just to rant on a daft comment. This being the Fourth of July, however, provokes me to find something to get fired up about. For years, people have been putting forward woefully inadequate arguments like this in defense of every scandal and impropriety under the sun. They ridicule, defame, and discredit their dissent at every opportunity only to be met with silent disagreement and the shaking of heads when they spew forth their own dogma. Given that, 238 years ago, a bunch of guys got together for an wholly unpopular and illegal war, I feel the least we can do a couple centuries later is have an equally uncivil dialogue with those who would consciously argue on behalf of throwing away the very values and principles those men fought and died for.
#Murica