More importantly. I’m gonna use these screenshots, that could easily have been modified, as the basis for my entire understanding of “privacy versus security”. Without reviewing any of the sources.
I believe Abraham Lincoln summed it up in that famous meme: “If it’s a quote on a picture on the internet, it’s gotta be true”
"If a man posts a meme, surely his whole world view is encapsulated in it. For truly I say to you, no human can have depth beyond a joke that they make."
But then again, maybe you and Ghandi are just making assumptions as shallow as the jokes you are mocking.
No but you see I, a stranger on the internet, agree with the message of the post. Therefore, it must be correct, as one is unable to lie on the internet lest their shins be removed by the cyberpolice.
Some nazis were given high ranking jobs in the US, typically those who were good at science and math (although we got a lot more of our big science brains from refugees fleeing the German Reich. Brain drain in autocratic and fascist movements is a very real thing, and has happened in multiple fields here in the states).
When it came to NSDAP Idealogues, we didn't really need to import any, as all of our big industrialists were pro-NSDAP and believed in the ideology independently (which is to say they agreed with them, and still do, even if they don't regard themselves as aligned with the NSDAP political party). Those that did come here were friends of gazillionaires (who would be billionaires today, though the dollar was stronger then. J. P. Morgan, Carnegie and Rockefeller all were 100-millionaires.
Plenty of escaping Nazi officers fled across the world. South American nations are notorious because they weren't actively hunting them down (yet) so they required less subversion getting through customs, and then could work out identity changes and fade into seclusion later. Plenty did come to the United States, pretending to be someone else, since they didn't have rocket science cred.
In the early 2010s, If you've nothing to hide you've nothing to fear had already been resurfacing as a common thought-stopping cliché here in the states, since SCOTUS had been adding carve-outs by the dozens to the fourth amendment to the Constitution to the United States (the one about protections from unreasonable searches and seizures). At first, if you didn't speak english, or are within 100 miles of a US border or coast (that's most of the US), the police got free probable cause. Eventually SCOTUS ruled that if you were searched illegally and evidence for a crime was found, that evidence could not be suppressed if the crime was significant enough (e.g. the clothes of a missing child no wait, simple drug possession was enough.)
We were already aware of the FISC, FBI National Security Letters (the origins of the NSL canary statements) and the disposition matrix, by which even US citizens could be sentenced to execution by secret trial; the right to face one's accuser was long forfeit.
But then, it was also a period in which US citizens averaged about three crimes a day, mostly violations of the CFAA (which Reagan signed into law after watching Wargames 1983. Violation of the TOS of a website was a federal felony, which meant every tween that got a Facebook Friendster or Myspace account was committing a crime that could be sentenced up to 25 years (what is the upper limit for murder one in some states). It wasn't enforced... unless some official needed you to go away, say because he wanted your wife, or your property, or for you to shut up about his crimes.
And this is one example, and why telephone encryption is such a problem. Today, it's illegal in most states for law enforcement to search your phone once you're in custody without a warrant. They do anyway, and might or might not be able to crack the encryption with current tech (it's an ongoing race between exploits and fixes). If they find something worth prosecuting, or assets worth seizing or extorting you over, or if they just don't like you, then yes, expect to lose all your valuable property and assets, and become their informant. Sexual favors may also be necessary if you're attractive.
And that's why we need privacy, even as SCOTUS continues to strip it away from us.
In the 2020s, though, it's all the other technologies: IMSI spoofing, camera drones, ALPRs, Facial Recognition (which is a good way to get falsely convicted), Ring doorbell camera botnets, reverse warrants based on location or websearches, and so on. Big Brother is left holding the beer of IRL 2024.
We have always been a shameful nation, even from the beginning.
"All men are created equal"
is slave state
But what happened to Snowden was a modern reaffirmation of our long held belief that this is a nation not only created by the shitters, but also maintained for the new and improved generation of shitters.
Privacy and security are synonymous, especially on the internet. Already independent of the fact that certain companies make money with your data for spurious purposes, too often without control and necessary protection.
Not merely was my own mail opened, but the mail of all my relatives and friends—people residing in places as far apart as California and Florida. I recall the bland smile of a government official to whom I complained about this matter: ‘If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear.’
Let's be clear: the right to privacy is not a fascist dogma.
Since Goebbels used the phrase "If you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear", then he'd be the one arguing against the right to privacy. The fascist dogma is eroding privacy in favour of surveillance - ostensibly to protect the people, but really just to control them.
If they really think there's no reason to hide anything, why are they prosecuting Snowden for exposing something that was hidden?
Before having surveillance on people, they should have it on themselves.
Imagine how many corruption cases could have been prevented if the government was publicly monitored, with live streams from all offices, like a "big brother" show set up in the white house with live recordings of all calls and communications, so the voters can judge by themselves and monitor if the person they employed as the servant for the country is doing its job.
The same oligarchs who lash out at you for wanting privacy are the same who are doing dark evil deeds that they absolutely want to keep private and a secret.
"Let the good guys see your messages" erases the dialectical materialism of the situation. All guys are guys looking out for their own class interests.
So if you let the Powers That Be surveil you, you have nothing to fear if you happen to be their friend. If they dislike you, you surely have something to fear.
"The powers that be" doesn't describe anything, nothing permanent anyway. The only constant is change, and that applies to leadership of any sort. A friendly leadership today is a hostile leadership tomorrow because its all a game of musical chairs. The tools to violate privacy, once created, will fall into all hands. In my opinion, we will learn the easy way.. or the unfortunate way.
That said, I didn't understand most of your message but responded to the small part that was communicated clearly.
Finally I'd like to (hopefully constructively) critique of your writing style. In the future I think that you should prioritize understandability and explanation over vocabulary and brevity. What use is a display of swordsmanship to a blind crowd?
“The powers that be” doesn’t describe anything, nothing permanent anyway.
That statement didn't even imply permanency.
friendly leadership today is a hostile leadership tomorrow because its all a game of musical chairs.
Liberal, parliamentary democracy is not the only form of governance, nor even this divisive as you paint it you know? And even then, the parties of a liberal democracy are but splinters in the interests they themselves represent. Capitalist interests.
Some of them may be "we should give them some crumbs so they quiet down" types, a social democrat minority, and others are "DEFUND EVERYTHING EXCEPT THE MILITARY AND PRIVATIZE THE REST" neoliberals, the majority nowadays. Nonetheless, they are on the same team of interests which has existed in the united states since ITS INCEPTION. Not that small of a timeframe.
The tools to violate privacy, once created, will fall into all hands. In my opinion, we will learn the easy way… or the unfortunate way.
As OP said, these are but tools and depending on who weilds them, and who you are yourself, your relation to these tools changes. It's not a universal evil, I for example would prefer a government keeping tabs on nazis and not leftists of all kinds (anarchists, communists). That's why do many Americans don't care. These tools don't hinder them, and help maintain the status quo they benefit from.
In the future I think that you should prioritize understandability and explanation over vocabulary and brevity. What use is a display of swordsmanship to a blind crowd?
When addressing a group of size, you can't please everyone, as different listeners will have different bits of prior knowledge.
I assumed an audience on an ML forum would know the difference between an idealist argument and a dialectical materialist one (rather than being a "blind crowd"). If not, that can't be helped: you can't customise speech to a varied audience.
You could erase the first two sentences of this comment and lose literally nothing. Which is pretty impressive, considering how important "dialectical materialism" sounds.
My only problem is that he could have chosen to violate the bad law in the way King and others have violated bad laws in an effort to shed light on their badness: break the bad law in the open where everyone can see, then get arrested, then put the bad law and the system behind it on trial.
By running away, he's given the people who are doing bad things a line of attack against him. It's bullshit, and doesn't change the fact that widespread warrantless surveillance is wrong. But some people will take the attacks against Snowden seriously. If he had turned himself in and gone to trial, that line of attack would be gone.
If being arrested and going to trial was his big concern, he would have taken that over running. We're talking about the NSA and CIA here. He was afraid of being suicided in jail before ever getting to a trial.
Honestly I'm a little surprised he's still alive. Russia wasn't his plan, but it may have been the best place for him to end up.