thaluikhain said:
"When done correctly".
How do we know this is being done correctly?
When folks like Julian Assange and Edward Snowden find themselves spending a long time in jail for espionage and treason respectively, instead of being lauded by Newspapers as heroes fighting for truth and justice.
The truth and justice they fight for involves giving out all that precious information about your sexuality and life choices.
The Intelligence agency spends it's life trying to protect that information against the very people that people in this thread are terrified of.
thaluikhain said:
Stu35 said:
I'm talking about the Intelligence agency. The Intelligency agency and those who work for it have a job to do - they literally DON'T care about your sexual preferences because it's got fuck all to do with their overarching mission.
They are not supposed to care. Not the same thing.
I'm going to try rephrasing what I'm saying here...
They literally
CAN'T care about your sexuality etc. They don't have the time.
An Intelligence analyst has the same number of hours in her day as you do - She has a job to do, and objectives that need achieving, none of which involve what you do with your dangly bits on a webcam. She needs to provide actionable, useful, or informative Intelligence which contributes to the overarching objectives of the agency she works for.
If she doesn't, she gets fired. Same as if you spend all your time at your job looking at wangs instead of doing your job.
HardkorSB said:
I hate the whole "nothing to hide, nothing to fear" mentality.
Imagine you're a political activist. You're not doing anything illegal but your views strongly disagree with the current status quo and you're slowly getting more and more followers.
Do you really thing that they won't do anything to you? They will watch you 24/7, looking for anything suspicious that can get you arrested or in the very least, discredit you in the eyes of the public. They will know who you talk to, when and about what, it will make it easier for them to prepare a "controversy" surrounding you.
If you're just an average schmuck working 9-5 then nothing will happen to you because you're no threat but if by any chance you will want to become something more, without affiliating yourself with someone who's already in a position of power, you're fucked.
Except you know who DOESN'T do that? Intelligence agencies.
You know who DOES do that? The free-and-open media of the west.
People always seem to think that it's the likes of the Guardian and Daily Mail who are for truth, justice, and freedom.
Yet every slander, every allegation, every attempt to suppress anything that isn't the "Status quo", comes from the Media.
It doesn't come from GCHQ, MI5, etc. - If the source is GCHQ, MI5, etc, then you can guarantee it was obtained and released illegally by the media.
In the UK we've literally got ongoing investigations and trials into this very thing - Everyone remember the phone-hacking scandal? You should, it's still fucking happening.
People don't give a fuck though, because instead of being presented (by the media) as a wide rot within the whole system, it's being presented as a few bad eggs.
On the other hand people are scared because the government is up to something, and you're told not to trust ANYTHING the government does - by the media.
Ed_Fox said:
Ah yes the old "Anyone who'd trade saftey for freedom deserves/gets neither" argument.
Be lovely if it was that black and white. It really would.
Should we also just get rid of the police altogether? After all, part of their very existence involves preventing you doing whatever the fuck you want, whenever the fuck you want. All in the name of security.