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The more I live I’m less concerned about what are often described as “bad actors”. The bad actors are often the state, and this kind of information is collected without thought to the risk of future politicians who don’t follow the rules or who don’t have any respect for the laws.

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Through all history state security has been a thing. The Stasi and KGB are transparently state security forces to the West, but the CIA and MI5/6 are... what exactly?

The primary purpose of these agencies, despite what has been written down on paper, is NOT to protect the citizens of the countries that fund them. It is to protect the system that taxes those citizens.

States are not inherently good, they are just large organisations with a monopoly on certain social functions. All large organisations have the capacity to inflict terrible harm.

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