Ask Slashdot: Why Isn't There More Public Outrage About NSA Revelations?

Nerval's Lobster writes "This morning we discussed news that the National Security Agency (NSA) has siphoned up millions of online address books and contact lists. The Post drew its information from top-secret documents provided by government whistleblower Edward Snowden, who spent the summer feeding information about the NSA to a variety of news outlets. Snowden's documents (as outlined in The Guardian, Spiegel Online and other venues) have detailed a massive NSA program that's siphoning all sorts of personal information from a variety of sources — and yet the public seems to have greeted each new revelation with weakening outrage. Whereas the initial news reports about NSA splying in June kicked off a firestorm of controversy and discussion (aggravated by the drama of Snowden seeking asylum in pretty much any country that would have him), the unveiling of the NSA's Great Contact-List Caper has ranked below the news stories such as the government shutdown, negotiations over Iran's nuclear program, and invites for Apple's upcoming iPad event on aggregators such as Google News; it also didn't make much of a blip on Twitter and other online forums. There's the very real possibility that Americans, despite the assurances of government officials, are being monitored in a way that potentially violates their privacy. Surely that's an issue that concerns a great many individuals; and yet, as time goes by, it seems as if people are choosing to focus on other things. Are we suffering from 'surveillance fatigue?'"

Comments

Re:Deep down..

[kick6]

There doesn't seem to be great outrage at the possiblity of default, which could have catastrophic effects on the US economy if it resulted in the US Dollar's reserve currency status being downgraded -- if a significant proportion of those dollars currently held by other countries were sold, it would be dire. Any impact on the economy from the ACA would pale into insignificance in comparison to compromise of reserve currency status. So where is the outrage at the small number of Republicans who are threatening this?

So we should all more shit to get piled on our collective plates of shit because of the possibility of an even larger pile of shit being dumped on us if we don't.

THAT'S your play?

How about fuck you, I'll take my ball and go home, instead?