If I look at the whole of the world over the past two or three decades, I would say the average non-American’s life has been far, far more influenced by power exerted by their national government (through its laws and regulations) than by power exerted by the US government (e.g., via wars, drone strikes, and Abu Ghraib). Would you agree?
I would be curious to know what, according to you, are the reasons why mass surveillance is bad. In my mind a lot of it has to do with freedoms of speech, association, and dissent, and for these I think it’s pretty clearly worse if a citizen’s own government is surveilling them than if a foreign government does it.
Naive. US surveillance of foreigners is used to help US-friendly regimes suppress dissent. During the Indonesia 1965-66 massacre, the US sent lists of communists to be killed. Pretty sure the same things happened during Operation Condor in South America.
If I look at the whole of the world over the past two or three decades, I would say the average non-American’s life has been far, far more influenced by power exerted by their national government (through its laws and regulations) than by power exerted by the US government (e.g., via wars, drone strikes, and Abu Ghraib). Would you agree?
I would be curious to know what, according to you, are the reasons why mass surveillance is bad. In my mind a lot of it has to do with freedoms of speech, association, and dissent, and for these I think it’s pretty clearly worse if a citizen’s own government is surveilling them than if a foreign government does it.
Naive. US surveillance of foreigners is used to help US-friendly regimes suppress dissent. During the Indonesia 1965-66 massacre, the US sent lists of communists to be killed. Pretty sure the same things happened during Operation Condor in South America.