Great post. I totally agree, and it is for these reasons I loathe anyone who defends the actions of the USG/NSA.
I also find it incredibly naive of others who make statements, here on HN and elsewhere, that the US is NOT a real tyranny as compared to others like Russia/CHina/Whatever.
Sure it is - its just much much more successful at population control.
Exactly. Our propaganda isn't posters of people marching in support of our glorious nation. It's much more subtle. Instead you just make people think they're free when really, they are only free to march along the dotted line. Free to buy what they want. Free to watch 500 channels. The government doesn't even need to enforce it because it's engrained in our culture. Try bringing up how failingly stupid US capitalism is or how broken the voting system is and people spend every breath they have bitching you out for being unamerican. I feel like we got really close to people waking up a little bit around when the 2008 crash happened, but since then it's been business as usual for the most part, unfortunately.
I also find it incredibly naive of others who make statements, here on HN and elsewhere, that the US is NOT a real tyranny as compared to others like Russia/CHina/Whatever.
Sure it is - its just much much more successful at population control.