donnay
06-11-2013, 09:17 AM
Most Americans Support Being Spied on by NSA
“Good German” syndrome runs rampant as government becomes tyrannical
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com (http://www.infowars.com/most-americans-support-being-spied-on-by-nsa/)
June 11, 2013
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has sacrificed his freedom, his future, his family, his home and his model girlfriend in order to warn Americans that they are the targets of a monolithic spy agency which is working feverishly to ensure that privacy is demolished – and most Americans simply don’t care.
Revelations that the National Security Agency was collecting records of millions of US customers of Verizon under a secret court order issued in April, followed by news that the NSA was also pulling private data “directly from the servers” of major US service providers such as Google and Facebook, stoked international condemnation, but not from American citizens, most of whom actually support the idea.
“A majority of Americans – 56% – say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism,” reports Pew Research Center.
A comparison with a previous poll from January 2006 highlights the fact that more Americans are now likely to support NSA surveillance despite the huge scandal it caused for the Bush administration. Under Bush, 47% found NSA wiretapping of Americans unacceptable whereas just 41% find it unacceptable under Obama.
The poll also finds that whereas 61% of Democrats found blanket NSA surveillance unacceptable under Bush, only 34% oppose it under Obama – underscoring once again how partisanship is used to dismantle American freedoms no matter who is in office.
The survey also reveals that just one on four Americans are following the NSA story “very closely,” whereas the other 73% are presumably more interested in the release of the new XBox and season 17 of Dancing With the Stars.
“Sorry Edward Snowden: you just threw your life away for nothing. The sheep have been properly and thoroughly conditioned and brainwashed, which is why they continue to get precisely the government they so rightfully deserve,” writes Zero Hedge.
While the NSA sites the necessity to stop “terrorism” as its justification for eviscerating the 4th Amendment, the Obama administration is simultaneously supporting Al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria, many of whom have promised to attack the United States once they have finished with Bashar Al-Assad.
The irony of Snowden having to run to Communist China to escape from “the land of the free” is a chilling subtext to the story. Other authoritarian regimes throughout history have also cited security threats as a reason to put the entire population under surveillance.
As Robert Gellately of Florida State University has highlighted, Germans under Hitler spied on and denounced their neighbors and friends not because they genuinely believed them to be a security threat, but because they expected to selfishly benefit from doing so, both financially, socially and psychologically via a pavlovian need to be rewarded by their masters for their obedience.
That “Good German” syndrome is very much alive and kicking amongst Americans today, most of whom seem to be completely at ease with the fact that their government is becoming tyrannical while willing to make any excuse imaginable to deny that the United States is beginning to resemble a high-tech plutocracy which treats its own citizens as the enemy.
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Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.
“Good German” syndrome runs rampant as government becomes tyrannical
Paul Joseph Watson
Infowars.com (http://www.infowars.com/most-americans-support-being-spied-on-by-nsa/)
June 11, 2013
NSA whistleblower Edward Snowden has sacrificed his freedom, his future, his family, his home and his model girlfriend in order to warn Americans that they are the targets of a monolithic spy agency which is working feverishly to ensure that privacy is demolished – and most Americans simply don’t care.
Revelations that the National Security Agency was collecting records of millions of US customers of Verizon under a secret court order issued in April, followed by news that the NSA was also pulling private data “directly from the servers” of major US service providers such as Google and Facebook, stoked international condemnation, but not from American citizens, most of whom actually support the idea.
“A majority of Americans – 56% – say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism,” reports Pew Research Center.
A comparison with a previous poll from January 2006 highlights the fact that more Americans are now likely to support NSA surveillance despite the huge scandal it caused for the Bush administration. Under Bush, 47% found NSA wiretapping of Americans unacceptable whereas just 41% find it unacceptable under Obama.
The poll also finds that whereas 61% of Democrats found blanket NSA surveillance unacceptable under Bush, only 34% oppose it under Obama – underscoring once again how partisanship is used to dismantle American freedoms no matter who is in office.
The survey also reveals that just one on four Americans are following the NSA story “very closely,” whereas the other 73% are presumably more interested in the release of the new XBox and season 17 of Dancing With the Stars.
“Sorry Edward Snowden: you just threw your life away for nothing. The sheep have been properly and thoroughly conditioned and brainwashed, which is why they continue to get precisely the government they so rightfully deserve,” writes Zero Hedge.
While the NSA sites the necessity to stop “terrorism” as its justification for eviscerating the 4th Amendment, the Obama administration is simultaneously supporting Al-Qaeda terrorists in Syria, many of whom have promised to attack the United States once they have finished with Bashar Al-Assad.
The irony of Snowden having to run to Communist China to escape from “the land of the free” is a chilling subtext to the story. Other authoritarian regimes throughout history have also cited security threats as a reason to put the entire population under surveillance.
As Robert Gellately of Florida State University has highlighted, Germans under Hitler spied on and denounced their neighbors and friends not because they genuinely believed them to be a security threat, but because they expected to selfishly benefit from doing so, both financially, socially and psychologically via a pavlovian need to be rewarded by their masters for their obedience.
That “Good German” syndrome is very much alive and kicking amongst Americans today, most of whom seem to be completely at ease with the fact that their government is becoming tyrannical while willing to make any excuse imaginable to deny that the United States is beginning to resemble a high-tech plutocracy which treats its own citizens as the enemy.
*********************
Paul Joseph Watson is the editor and writer for Infowars.com and Prison Planet.com. He is the author of Order Out Of Chaos. Watson is also a host for Infowars Nightly News.