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Comment by trident5000 | Hacker News Reader

The same people complaining about the Patriot Act and cheering on Snowden for publicizing NSA PRISM are the same people cheering on govt mass triangulating civilians.

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That's quite a generalization, and not really the case going off people I know. Most aren't cheering on the surveillance state. Many are mocking the people who attacked the Capitol with their phones in hand, but that's not the same as approval of the big electric cage we're in.

And some of the same people who cheered on the Patriot Act and called Snowden a traitor are now getting swept up by government surveillance, after they committed serious crimes.

Many of these people are cheering for the Domestic Terrorism Prevention Act of 2021.

Turning your phone off or leaving it at home is already used to identify suspects.

Yes. It is possible to believe in law enforcement and the curbing of privacy-invading legislation at the same time.

Actually no. You cannot believe in curbing privacy-invading legislation and also cheer on warantless mass cell phone location tracking at the same time. You need to pick one.

Great: no surveillance

Not so great: surveillance on everyone and catching criminals with it, but within a democratic framework

Disastrous: surveillance on everyone, while giving a pass to insurgents attempting to overthrow democratic governance, because if they take over the surveillance infrastructure you're doomed

How were a bunch of crazies in the capitol going to take control of the US surveillance infrastructure?

The world is not black and white. You absolutely can pick both.

yep, and in the other half I know people who made their entire careers in surveillance and cooperating with the sort of organizations implementing these things, but it was "good actually".

Either way, no sympathy for these hypocrites.

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