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How many different refutations of "I have nothing to hide" have to be posted before it sinks in what a terrible stance that is? Or are you simply explaining the average person's inner response?

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The latter. But I'm going a step farther than you probably think I am. I'm terribly annoyed by the presumption geeks like us have that Americans are ok with surveillance because they're stupid. They're not: their stance on surveillance is entirely rational. It is a fact that most of them --- like, 99.999% of them --- really don't have anything to fear from NSA†; in fact, the cost/benefit of NSA surveillance vs. Islamist terrorism probably does favor NSA, for most of them.

† IN 2013!

I see. I would tend to agree. Some Americans are ignorant and stupid about a lot of things (I say this as an American) but I think you're right. I mean, part of that also is being aware of the implications of saying "I have nothing to hide", etc, but that's for the other discussions.

Anyway, to be clear, I don't think this is one of those "Why does America care about the Kardashians instead of this?!!" issues.

The latter. I agree it's a terrible stance.

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