Aha I see. The NSA and Stasi are collecting vast amounts of data on everybody living in their countries. Data that was and will be abused to ruin innocent lives. But you prefer to discuss in this topic something "entirely, completely separate".
I am arguing that the NSA is not like the Stasi. They had different goals, different authorization, and different modus operandi. You're arguing that the NSA is bad (because they are like the Stasi). Whether the NSA is bad or not is orthogonal to my discussion.
To directly answer your reply:
1. The Stasi doesn't collect vast amounts of anything any more.
2. Has the NSA used data to ruin innocent lives? Have you any evidence that they will do so in the future?