NSA - The Day We Fight Back

[Gibbles]

I really, really, really hate this practise as it can be used for a lot of bad stuff, but remember this:

 

It's not like people are currently reading your private IMs. They don't scour everyone's information in case there's something they could use.

 

They're storing information. Hundreds to millions of snippets of info can apply to one person out of millions to billions of different individuals.

 

They're not gonna look through all your data for shits and giggles and try to "catch" you. If you as an individual are suspected in participating in certain activities and there's a court case about you, they will find your profile and look through it and find that evidence.

 

Nobody's gonna care if you watch weird porn. If nobody else knows, there's no questions about it, and it doesn't rise up in court or something, nobody's gonna find out either.

 

But there is a problem that the NSA can very easily make use of someone's search history in an attempt to embarass someone into silence if they dare choose to criticise their government. Blackmail, if you like.

[Rathlord]

Gibbles I realize you didn't use the "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" argument but the points raised here are still relevant to yours: http://falkvinge.net/2012/07/19/debunking-the-dangerous-nothing-to-hide-nothing-to-fear/

[Keepbro]

If you're arguing that dictators are more authoritative on political theory I don't really know how to move forward from here. You're arguing from an entirely different platform than everyone else, and that's not really what this debate is about at all. That's… something for another thread, another time.

 

Also, the amount of "hardship" a person goes through in no way affects their intelligence or their correctness, that's a vastly flawed argument.

 

No but the key topic here is political theory and the underlining aspect of politics is power and its usage of. The guys I mentioned are the most well known of the modern political theorists and I would in some cases argue that they are more authoritative on the art of ruling. I did mention some democratic theorists however but you didnt seem to mention them in rebuttal. I could also have included more beneficent people such as Mandela or Ghandi. The other problem is is that political theory needs to be actually used or it remains just theory and in that I do believe that the amount of hardship one goes through and how it affects them is important. I am all for intelligence and correctness but I have always felt that application is vastly more important and in that hardship and lifestyle does play an important part. Finally do note that one mans freedom fighter is another mans terrorist.

 

In any case it still doesnt change my position that I feel that Jefferson was a hack who had it easy and who espoused what were considered fashionable ideals at the time. He strikes me as exactly the type of guy who gets into politics just because the hot chicks are all doing it.

[Rathlord]

Fair points, but I'd still rather see evidence that Jefferson's tenets were incorrect over anecdotes about his life 

[uberevan]

You are basically saying that what applied then doesn't apply now because it's a new era?  If I am mistaken with this assumption you have my apologies.

 

I'd wager that Jefferson knew a thing or two about politics.  We can firmly agree on this, yes?

Let's take a look at the Holocaust.  When the Nazi party rose to power they were able to grant many things to their people.  Then they were given even more power.  What happened to the Jews? The Homosexuals, the Slavs, the Poles, the Russians, physically or mentally disabled, political prisoners, intelligent thinkers, etc.  Would you say that they had enough power to take away their rights?  They had enough power to take away their lives!  And this occurred less than 100 years ago.

 

Let's say that our Government starts regulating our food supply.  I go to retrieve my portion while engaged in a conversation with a friend.  He says that he doesn't like how our Government runs.  He is no longer receiving his portions because he disagrees.  He starves to death and dies because it's up to the Government to say who and who does not get food.  This is just an example of what could happen if the Government really did have the power to give us what we want...or to take it.

[FawkesGaming]

NOT MY BUSINESS

They picked Akanni up one morning

Beat him soft like clay

And stuffed him down the belly

Of a waiting jeep.

What business of mine is it

So long they don’t take the yam

From my savouring mouth?

They came one night

Booted the whole house awake

And dragged Danladi out,

Then off to a lengthy absence.

What business of mine is it

So long they don’t take the yam

From my savouring mouth?

Chinwe went to work one day

Only to find her job was gone:

No query, no warning, no probe -

Just one neat sack for a stainless record.

What business of mine is it

So long they don’t take the yam

From my savouring mouth?

And then one evening

As I sat down to eat my yam

A knock on the door froze my hungry hand.

The jeep was waiting on my bewildered lawn

Waiting, waiting in its usual silence.

[DoctahWong]

NOT MY BUSINESS

They picked Akanni up one morning

Beat him soft like clay

And stuffed him down the belly

Of a waiting jeep.

What business of mine is it

So long they don’t take the yam

From my savouring mouth?

They came one night

Booted the whole house awake

And dragged Danladi out,

Then off to a lengthy absence.

What business of mine is it

So long they don’t take the yam

From my savouring mouth?

Chinwe went to work one day

Only to find her job was gone:

No query, no warning, no probe -

Just one neat sack for a stainless record.

What business of mine is it

So long they don’t take the yam

From my savouring mouth?

And then one evening

As I sat down to eat my yam

A knock on the door froze my hungry hand.

The jeep was waiting on my bewildered lawn

Waiting, waiting in its usual silence.

You should become a rapper, my boy.

 

 

Now let's get back on topic... starting with someone else because i don't even know what NSA is.

[FawkesGaming]

 

NOT MY BUSINESS

They picked Akanni up one morning

Beat him soft like clay

And stuffed him down the belly

Of a waiting jeep.

What business of mine is it

So long they don’t take the yam

From my savouring mouth?

They came one night

Booted the whole house awake

And dragged Danladi out,

Then off to a lengthy absence.

What business of mine is it

So long they don’t take the yam

From my savouring mouth?

Chinwe went to work one day

Only to find her job was gone:

No query, no warning, no probe -

Just one neat sack for a stainless record.

What business of mine is it

So long they don’t take the yam

From my savouring mouth?

And then one evening

As I sat down to eat my yam

A knock on the door froze my hungry hand.

The jeep was waiting on my bewildered lawn

Waiting, waiting in its usual silence.

You should become a rapper, my boy.

 

 

Now let's get back on topic... starting with someone else because i don't even know what NSA is.

 

Haha, it was a poem we covered in GCSE English... some 3 years ago now. It was written in a time when people were going missing in Africa for questioning the regime, and I thought it fitting considering the "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" attitude seen in this topic.

 

And the NSA is an American security firm who have been in the news recently for spying and keeping records on pretty much everyone over the internet. Something scary considering how the internet is supposed to be Anonymous.