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Comment by todayiamme | Hacker News Reader

I quite frankly don't understand why anyone would condemn such acts of espionage. They are not only essential for a nation state to function successfully, but they are also a far superior way for the US to maintain its hegemony as compared to using acts of brute force.

Now I do not condone Orwellian spying on the citizens of your own republic, but this really is their job and it's quite impressive that they're this good at it. Especially given the fact that historically the US has not been completely invested in espionage and has favoured building up capacity after key events and quickly dismantling the apparatus once the emergency has passed. What these scandals are offering is a glimpse into a dramatic shift in the way the US conducts its affairs and that in of itself is quite noteworthy.

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In which you assume far too much:

- that espionage is required for a state to function successfully

- that maintaining US hegemony is both a national good and good for the world

- that brute force is the only other viable option to rampant surveillance

It is specifically because none of those things ought to be assumed, none of them are a given, and none are inherently good or desirable or required, that one ought to condemn these acts.

Am I surprised that this covert activity is happening? No. I'm not even surprised by the scale.

What will be interesting to find is who's not in that list that should be.

Who are the puppet masters?

US Hegemony = US shall rule over all nations of the world ? So US should own every country , because what, US is superior and the others inferiors?

And to maintain or to make this "hegemony" bigger they can use whatever tool they like to protect its own position of superiority and ruler.. really?

Im stunned by this speech and the ideology behind it.. its from people that believe in this dangerous (and ultra-right i must say) believes, that NSA is being feed of; and worst probably the US government has tons of politicians that think that way..

No wonder how the US get into this mess, and if it doesnt clear it up soon... things cant get pretty scary.. cause its way out of control.

I'm not sure you can class it as "We are this good at it"... when it's being discussed publicly around the world, and the president is fielding calls from world leaders asking why they are being spied on.

Will all these defences of the NSA be repeated when we discover the Germans returning the favour?

One very big reason is that this intelligence has been used for industrial espionage. Our allies now know that when they bid against US companies, they will only get the contracts that are considered unprofitable by US companies.

That's not a good way to keep allies.

I'm surprized that we are so bad at protecting our privacy, especily state leaders.

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