Focus on the man, and not the issue. That is the "freak out".
The drama regarding Edward Snowden's whereabout is the only thing keeping the story going.
For most people, PRISM was one of 100 stories on their newsfeed that day.
I am happy that the worries of echelon, which was treated as rumour, hearsay and conspiracy theory are now 100% proven to the entire world.
I am looking forward to seeing what further revelations Snowden's files will show.
The European Parliament held reports on the capabilities of Echelon. Industrial espionage has been linked to Echelon.
The purpose of Echelon (intercept communications data) is the stated purpose of GCHQ. Really, it's on their website and in their recruiting material. They monitor all communications, anywhere in the world, from DC to light.
Echelon isn't fantastic weird conspiracy theory.
[1] Sarcasm is not useful in text and it's especially not useful on a forum like HN, where there tends to be a higher number of users who are more literal than the regular population.
For the majority of the population, they have either never heard of echelon, never took it seriously or have outright dismissed it as a crazy conspiracy irrespective of the previous proof.
I think of all these things are coming out now as an opportunity to have a serious discussion about wtf the US (and humanity) is doing.
It's time to work as a global civilization. Our resources are squandered on creating truly a prison planet (no reference or credit to Alex jones).