I Am Beyond Sick/Tired Of Being Called An "Authoritarian NSA Apologist".

[Triana]

17. You have the same doubts/reservations I do about these characters

Last edited Sun Aug 18, 2013, 08:17 PM - Edit history (1)

I'm disturbed by the extent of NSA spying, of course and want something done about it. But I'm not surprised about it - that's going on and has been for at least a decade. Us old-time DUers remember raising holy hell about it back with Bu$h implemented it - the Patriot Act and all that spying mess. Much of what they were doing was illegal. Their solution wasn't to stop doing it. It was to try to make it legal in gross violation of every American's constitutional rights by every contortion of law they could think of. And it's STILL ILLEGAL.

It's not a surprise. It's a good thing that the nation is now finally PAYING ATTENTION and AWARE of it whereas it largely was not before -- mostly because people are lazy/complacent. But at least something FINALLY got their damned attention. Too bad it had to be these goons.

Nonetheless I will not idolize or heroize these characters - any of them. I'm sure they all have their motives and I doubt they are entirely altruistic/patriotic. And if they're Republican/libertarian then I trust their motives even less. Is it good they've brought this stuff to light? Sure.

But Americans would have known about it had they the consciousness and attention span to put down their damned beer and shut off the TV, learn to read and pay attention for more than 5 seconds to something besides their own immediate little individual worlds for once. (their grocery list, their SUV, their sporting events, their NetFlix, their yard, etc.).

Citizenship demands more than just voting every 2-4 years, paying taxes and occasional jury duty. People need to be ACTIVE, INVOLVED, AND PAYING ATTENTION to what the HELL is going on. As much as I blame government overreach and their "we do it because we can" attitude, government dysfunction on bu$h and his fucking evil minions and the GOP/John Birch Society/ALEC/WallStKoch Bros. contingent - I also blame plain American laziness and complacency. You can't COAST along as citizens and keep a Democracy. YOU. WILL. LOSE. IT. It will be taken from you right under your noses. And that's what has happened.

We all have a part in having stood by and LET too much of this shit happen. Now look where we are. Damn.