[lostalex]

i'm still waiting to see a case of them abusing their power. if they were spying, and then using the information to blackmail people based on what they saw, like maybe they see a man is cheating on his wife, or someone is gay, or someone has a drinking problem, but i haven't seen any evidence that the government agencies are using those types of things against innocent people.

Everything i've seen so far seems like they really are just trying to keep people safe. so i don't understand the problem.

If there was new evidence that actually the NSA or GCHQ were using person information, like personal issues against people from their spying, then i'd have more of a problem with it, but so far i haven't seen them doing that.

So far, all of the leaks have shown that they are doing exactly what we want them to do, which is investigate dangerous people, and do their best to stop them. Do they also discover embarassing things about people? yes, but they aren't persecuting people for embarrassing things like cheating on their wife, or having a drinking problem, they ignore those things.

i watched Citizenfour last night, and i don't think Edward Snowden should go to prison, he seems like a genuinely good guy (unlike greenwald and assange, who just seem to hate the US and want attention) and i think he did the right thing by exposing what he did, but i also think snowden ignored the larger picture, which is that the NSA and GCHQ have not been abusing their powers. I'm sure the NSA and GCHQ find out all sorts of unsavory things about tons of people while they are looking for terrorists, but they haven't been proven to have used that information against anyone innocent. There's no proof that they have abused their power.