Hacker News

points by motohagiography 2 days ago | 0 comments

what was always remarkable about surveillance is that given these immense intrusive powers and a total panopticon, this is still the best they can do.

fentanyl epidemic, mass illegal migration and trafficking, networks of terrible abuse, flagrant public corruption, infiltration of schools and academia, conspiracies to demolish the entire western world, and yet even with total information awareness or some variant, these crimes occur in the open.

the scandal isnt that they are spying, its what they have explicitly chooseb to allow and enable.

[–] rubberstamp 2 days ago

You are assuming they are trying to do the best for citizens or best to abide by the constitution. They are not. In fact they actively try to side step the laws and constitution, and have these kind of secret interpretations ready. Would also like to remind you that no democratic country would allow smuggling of drugs by its own government apparatus but the usa has done that, so the drug epidemic isn't that shocking outcome.

[–] JTbane 2 days ago

What enrages me is the longstanding precedent that the government cannot read your letters without a warrant, but apparently electronic messages that are directly analogous are fair game.