I had a chance to watch the Edward Snowden interview with John Oliver. Since I only have ten minutes I have to be a reductionist. I see his argument as, ‘Americans should not be spied upon and the NSA should only spy on outside threats.’ His argument is more nuanced than that and he goes on to argue that we have a right to know exactly how much we are being surveilled. I agree with him in that aspect, but I do so knowing that I likely should not have a huge say in controlling that.
In the John Oliver interview it became clear that people care about privacy when it comes to petty things like dick picks. Oliver called it a visible line in the sand. So based on his argument (which I agree with) we care about surveillance when it applies to us and don’t want to be watched. We don’t care about surveillance when it applies to people we have no contact with or when we can logically process the need for that surveillance to happen. It is a terrible double standard that we continue to perpetuate in this misguided effort for and understanding of safety.
I am all for safety. I am all for security from foreign threat.I just recognize that threats come from within and that those are far more dangerous than anything outside of the ‘hard protective shell’ of Amurrica.
Some Thoughts:
- Three things happened in America in 1796 that I found incredibly interesting. We got an elephant from India, started a black church, and
- Despite the fact that collegiate athletics seem akin to modern slavery in many ways, I still want my kids to have the opportunity to explore the relationships and excitement that come with college athletics. I just hope the slavery part comes into national focus before then and people start to recognize how messed up college athletics really are and fix the problem.