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The NSA Is Viewed Favorably By Most Young People
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.
I have found they exact opposite to be true when talking to people. Those between 18-30 mostly deeply disapprove of government spying, while the 30-45 demographic seem to split on the issue and the most of the people above 45 all seem to say that they aren't doing anything wrong so they have nothing to hide.
"In Soviet America, Passport Stamps You!"
Is it that those folks hate the IRS or our tax structure?
I can understand conservative's (Tea Party types) dislike - it was pretty damning the selective enforcement of tax laws against conservative organizations, but the rest? Do they know the difference or are they using the IRS as the goat for our byzantine tax structure?
It's like how comments get mod'ed down not because of their value but because the mod disagrees with it.
And as far as the EPA is concerned, everything that I have seen that they have done has protected my health. Or as I like to explain to my fellow peons, if Big Corp poisons you, you can maybe sue, but good luck suing to get your life back.
A billion dollars doesn't compensate me for the loss of life and limb.
When I see this horseshit of a kidney is worth so many hundreds of thousands of dollars, I just shake my head in the stupidity of it all. My kidneys are priceless to me. All the money in the World won't compensate me for the 4x a week dialysis, loss of health and loss of physical ability.
Human health comes first, our environment, and corporate profits come last.
I think our system is totally ass-backwards. When a business can say that their business will be harmed if people's health is considered and get precedence, I think WTF is wrong with you people?!
Alternate subject line for you: "Naivete inversely proportional to age", or "Young people proven yet again to be generally unwise, don't know the difference". The NSA has it's own propaganda machine, and guess what? Apparently it's working, what a shocker. There is an entire generation out there who have been raised to believe that 'not sharing' is anti-social and a symptom of some sort of mental illness, and that only people with something to hide want 'privacy'. Organizations like the NSA, and companies like Facebook and other so-called 'social media', which really are just data collection services for the government and marketers, are playing the long game of indoctrinating young people into the concept that their natural, normal need for privacy is wrong, bad, and an illness; if they're allowed to continue this, the next generation may not even know of such a thing as 'privacy', and maybe even react violently to the idea, like someone is, ironically, trying to take something away from them. They don't get that the world they live in is becoming more and more like a prison or a zoo, with them being the ones behind the bars, being watched 24/7/365. Meanwhile they're also being taught to not think, not question anything, to not work things out themselves, to ask an 'authority figure' instead; someone I used to work with had a phrase for people like this: 'Monkey button-pushers', people who can be taught to do a task, but that don't (or can't) understand really what they're doing. People have too much done for them, are less and less incentivised to actually learn how things work, learn skills, or to think creatively.
Are YOU using the TOOL, or is the TOOL using YOU? Think about it!
The poll isn't very surprising given its consistency with previous polls, but that doesn't change the fact that the attitudes of Americans don't seem to be very internally consistent or easily explainable. Either American people are just strangely illogical or there's some subtle issue with the polling method (or both?). The big question mark this survey leaves hanging is why trust in government is at an all time low (along with falling trust in most institutions), yet iterating specific parts of the government yields mostly favourable views. This is such an odd result that the very first sentence in the poll writeup says:
Yes, indeed. The public does A even though B. How strange.
The way the poll works means there's little information that can be used to explain this. Perhaps the 8 departments they chose to ask people about aren't the reason people distrust government. Perhaps their distrust falls exclusively on Congress, or on the judicial branch. We can't tell from this result alone.
Another possibility is that the wording of the poll - although superficially neutral - does trigger bias. The question was "do you trust the government in Washington always or most of the time?". People might be distinguishing between "the government in Washington" and "other bits of the government", e.g. the NSA is not actually in the city of Washington whereas Congress is. Ditto for various other departments and especially the military which does a great job of spreading itself around the country.
My final thought is that people might be more naturally inclined to take out their dissatisfaction on Congress than on the executive branch, because getting mad at Congress feels like it might achieve something due to voting, whereas getting mad at the NSA is about as useful as getting mad at a brick wall. They answer to no one and can't be controlled, so it's a lot more comfortable if you can convince yourself they're on your side rather than not.
My father is distrustful towards the government even though he is liberal and not a tea party guy who hates them based on idealogical grounds.
The government forced his friends in highschool to be killed in Vietnam against their will. He had a baby and went to school and they ripped his family apart and sent him to fight in a war he didn't believe in based on lies by Henry Kissenger, LBJ, and Nixon.
To this day he keeps a photocopy of his discharge papers from the military. He said enjoy what you have because what you have can be taken from you by the second!
So ... NSA spying, making up lies with the Iraq war with weapons of mass destruction, and this intrusion etc. To my Dad this is scary stuff complete with a mass with the younger generation reading this who can be fooled by propaganda easier.
In the 1950s he was spoonfed propaganda too about those evil scary communistis hiding under the bed. Younger folks do not understand these concepts or have lived in fear of "What if they draft me next?"
http://saveie6.com/
How do you tell God and Devil apart? http://dwindlinginunbelief.blo...
Simple - God wants his followers ignorant (do not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil), the Devil wants you to know everything - because then you'll *know* that God wants his followers ignorant. It's true - the Devil is in the details :-)
"Transparent" is a shit show that trades on every stereotype going. A man in drag is NOT a transsexual.