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The NSA Is Viewed Favorably By Most Young People

Posted by Soulskill on from the haven't-learned-when-to-trust dept.

cstacy writes: A poll by the Pew Research Center suggests that Snowden's revelations have not much changed the public's favorable view of the NSA. Younger people (under 30) tend to view the NSA favorably, compared to those 65 and older. 61% of people aged 18-29 viewed the NSA favorably, while 30% viewed the NSA unfavorably and 9% had no opinion. 55% of people aged 30-49 viewed the NSA favorably. At the 65+ age bracket, only 40% of people viewed the NSA favorably.

13 of 307 comments (clear)

  1. In other news... by DivineKnight · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In other news, Satan is viewed positively by those who have never heard of him...

    1. Re:In other news... by Opportunist · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I heard of him and I still think he's nothing but the PR department of his alleged adversary.

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
    2. Re:In other news... by Immerman · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Hey, it's much easier to get good press once you construct a bogeyman to blame for your less popular actions. Just look at the old testament - there is no adversary, and God is a great and terrible being whose attention you're probably better off avoiding entirely.

      --
      --- Most topics have many sides worth arguing, allow me to take one opposite you.
    3. Re: In other news... by king+neckbeard · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Ah, yes, of course a well-respected research center doesn't know how to run a simple opinion poll...

      In other news, grass is green, and the sky is blue. An opinion poll, Pew or otherwise, being shitty and unreliable is the case more often than not.

      --
      This is my signature. There are many like it, but this one is mine.
    4. Re:In other news... by sconeu · · Score: 5, Insightful

      My take: "Those who have never seen anything different happy with status quo".

      Demographic: 18-29. That means that they were between 5 and 16 when 9/11 happened. These kids grew up with "ZOMG!!! 3VIL TERRORIZTS!!!!!"

      --
      General Relativity: Space-time tells matter where to go; Matter tells space-time what shape to be.
    5. Re:In other news... by Opportunist · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I tend to think that I can actually estimate the NSA's obligation and motivation. Mostly because they are mine, if only in a different area and a different part of this planet. I, too, am concerned with security. I'm responsible for the security of quite important and valuable assets that, if threatened or even harmed, could have a serious negative impact on various parts of the economy and maybe lives, depending on how important some people take their belongings.

      I'm not responsible for the security of a country, but of a large enough corporation that maybe this allows me to speak in perspective here.

      And there is one thing that is imperative when it comes to security: Your efforts must not threaten your own assets. When protecting my assets costs more than they are worth, the security is not even just useless, it's worse than useless. Because you just wasted more than what an incident could have costed.

      Likewise, you cannot protect your assets by throwing them away. Of course you can avoid them being stolen by discarding them, but that doesn't accomplish anything either.

      And the NSA is doing just that. What's it worth to defend the USA against terrorist attacks if those attacks would do less damage than the protection? What is it worth to defend the "American way of life" if that very way of life with its liberties and freedoms is discarded in favor of a security theater?

      --
      We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
  2. If you knew the NSA was reading your response by russotto · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...and you do, because they're reading everything... how would YOU respond?

  3. they know they're watching by turkeydance · · Score: 5, Insightful

    young people say the 'right' thing to pollsters.

    1. Re:they know they're watching by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Insightful

      This.

      It's like when you're doing those paid online surveys and one about music comes up and they ask, "Have you ever pirated music / downloaded illegally / &c.?"

      If I haven't, I'll say "no". If I have, I'll say "no".

      Rule number 1: You do not say anything to incriminate you.

      Rule number 2: See rule number 1.

      Put another way, if a policeman thinks you're giving attitude and you say, "Do you have a problem with the police?" what you don't say is...

      The NSA fear campaign has worked. I know loads of people who have anti-authoritarian spirit who take great care about where they say things, and try to clean up any record of what they've said. They're not out to cause harm, and many of them have regular jobs, but they are worried about how they'll be judged now (by more authoritarian employers / if they were to become the subject of investigation / whatever) and how they'll be judged in the future (by everyone, when computers are powerful enough to trawl through every item of data anyone has ever published).

  4. Re:Not my findings by phantomfive · · Score: 5, Insightful

    So, now you have strong evidence that the people you talk to are not representative of America as a whole.

    --
    "First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
  5. The sheeple factor by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Sheeples will like something when they are told by someone that that something is good

    Most of the younger generations have been brought up without any struggle - everything has been provided for, from physical things such as housing, food, schooling to virtual things like voting rights, it's all there

    Unlike generation of yore who had to fight the system in order to get something - the young uns don't need to

    They are content, and content people can easily turned into sheeples

  6. Re:I am not sure what the hoopla is about by wbr1 · · Score: 4, Insightful
    I was not surprised either. However, we purport to be a free country with certain rights, including privacy. To not follow that is not just insulting and hypocritical, it is dangerous. The sheer amount of data collected is too much to handle period. This was proven at 9/11 which the NSA had intel on (with far less noisy data than now), and with the Boston marathon bombing.

    The question then is what will this data be used for if it is not usable/used for its intended purpose? I can think of nothing good, and this is the reason for those rights in the first place. To prevent tyranny.

    --
    Silence is a state of mime.
  7. How much based on who controls the White House? by Dragon+Bait · · Score: 4, Insightful

    How much of this is a reflection of "I trust the government, if my guy is in charge. I don't trust the government if the other guy is in charge."

    The Patriot Act is probably a great example of this. How many people flipped positions on whether the Patriot Act was a good thing or a bad thing when Bush left office and Obama became president?

    From what I can see, consistency of thought and philosophy seems rather rare in American politics. Too many people are partisan whores who always agree with their party and always disagree with the other party.