New Yorker - US Seemingly unaware of the Irony in the Snowden Case

[CaptUSA]

http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/borowitzreport/2013/06/us-seemingly-unaware-of-irony-in-accusing-snowden-of-spying.html


“These charges send a clear message,” the spokesman said. “In the United States, you can’t spy on people.”


“Only by bringing Mr. Snowden to justice can we safeguard the most precious of American rights: privacy,” added the spokesman, apparently serious.

Hopefully, the public will begin to see this. I think they're going to start saying that Snowden was breaking their procedures if he was looking at people stuff because they don't do that. "He's the spy - not the people collecting the data"

I'm not sure how much longer this is going to hold out. The public is dumb, but they're not dead.

[Occam's Banana]

Oh, they're perfectly well aware of the irony. They are also perfectly well aware that the great majority of people just don't give a shit. They know that most Americans (1) aren't paying any attention at all, and (2) the greater part of those who are paying some minimum amount of attention are fat, happy and complacent. They know that most of those few who are briefly distracted from their Starbucks lattes, NFL playoffs, Hollywood block-busters, juicy celebrity gossip, latest techie gew-gaws, etc., will just shrug their shoulders and say, "Meh. So what?" before turning back to their narrow, pedestrian interests.

They are, in effect, deliberately mocking us. They are rubbing our faces in it. "We're gonna just come right out and say the most blatantly corrupt, contradictory and stupid shit - and we're gonna get away with it. And there's not a goddam thing you can do about it." And they are right. They will get away with it. The worst they have to fear is things like the blog post referenced in the OP - which is to say, they have nothing to fear at all. And they know it.

This is the sinister brilliance of the "American system" of totalistic authoritarianism. The Nazis, Soviets, and other species of thought-controllers had it all wrong. They though you had to supress "free speech" and control the "press" and so forth. Not so. You merely need to foster a sufficient degree of smug, self-satisfied contentment among the general population. Once you do that, the general population will indulge any outrage you care to perpetrate. Best of all, "fringe elements" will be effectively neutered & "sidelined" without any particular effort on your part.

[CaptUSA]

Oh, they're perfectly well aware of the irony. They are also perfectly well aware that the great majority of people just don't give a shit. They know that most Americans (1) aren't paying any attention at all, and (2) the greater part of those who are paying some minimum amount of attention are fat, happy and complacent. They know that most of those few who are briefly distracted from their Starbucks lattes, NFL playoffs, Hollywood block-busters, juicy celebrity gossip, latest techie gew-gaws, etc., will just shrug their shoulders and say, "Meh. So what?" before turning back to their narrow, pedestrian interests.
I was waiting for you to say, "And HOW do they know it? They know it because they've been monitoring every damned conversation we've ever had!"


They are, in effect, deliberately mocking us. They are rubbing our faces in it. "We're gonna just come right out and say the most blatantly corrupt, contradictory and stupid shit - and we're gonna get away with it. And there's not a goddam thing you can do about it." And they are right. They will get away with it. The worst they have to fear is things like the blog post referenced in the OP - which is to say, they have nothing to fear at all. And they know it.

This is the sinister brilliance of the "American system" of totalistic authoritarianism. The Nazis, Soviets, and other species of thought-controllers had it all wrong. They though you had to supress "free speech" and control the "press" and so forth. Not so. You merely need to foster a sufficient degree of smug, self-satisfied contentment among the general population. Once you do that, the general population will indulge any outrage you care to perpetrate. Best of all, "fringe elements" will be effectively neutered & "sidelined" without any particular effort on your part.Great post! +rep