After Snowden, Users Too Scared to Post Anti-Gov Opinions. Mission Accomplished?

a reply to: Expat888

a reply to: ATODASO
You can keep typing it, that won't change my view that there are other contributing factors. To lay everything down to that one narrow cause would be a mistake.

originally posted by: loam
a reply to: ATODASO

I'd imagine it's a lot easier to tract threats to the government when you're watching people who don't know they are being watched.

I have no doubt the practical effect of Snowden is self-censorship. But the downside to the government is that the real crazies just go further underground, making them harder to find.

It would be a dumb mission if that were really the plan.

It did put the "government" into a position where they had to defend or go one the offensive. They chose to go on the offensive and justify itself leaving anyone that had hoped that this disclosure would prompt change rather disheartened and befuddled.

a reply to: Iamthatbish

i respect that your views are informed by your personal experience, but maybe you should consider that you are not in the majority.

what is an in-joke between you and your friends might scare the almighty # out of most people and keep them from talking. i don't think that's much of a stretch to make, especially since the data backs it up.

I can only talk about what I know and that is the Netherlands in this case.

Quite the opposite over here, and I would not be surprised looking at the signs something similar happened in the rest of Western Europe.

a reply to: ATODASO

Funny, I seldom saw political things on Facebook; now it's constantly full of anti-government sentiment.
I must be living in a really big bubble.....
I've heard more anti-government since Snowden that I ever did before. People no longer view me as an odd conspiricist.
Guess it depends on what part of the country you live in.
Even local papers run stories of government corruption on a regular basis now.

I take polls and studies with a grain of salt. It's a proven fact that the figures are most often skewed to sway public opinion. I personally believe this 'study' is full of skewed figures, as just the opposite is happening where I'm at.

originally posted by: ATODASO
i'll reiterate the findings of that study. since snowden, 86% of people will tell you how they feel about controversial issues in person, but less than half feel comfortable expressing that opinion online.

Is that the NSA having such effect ... or is it the fact that my son's most recent employer told him he either allows them to look at his FB page, or no jobby?

a reply to: Snarl

employers requesting access to an applicant's facebook page predates snowden.

and i'd point out again that the study included twitter users, and ask (sorry) again whether that means that people are silent across the full spectrum of social media.

good question, though.

originally posted by: nugget1
a reply to: ATODASO

Funny, I seldom saw political things on Facebook; now it's constantly full of anti-government sentiment.
I must be living in a really big bubble.....

sorry, i can't speak to your personal experience. if it contradicts the data from the study, that might mean that your social bubble reflects your views and interests. /shrug

a reply to: ATODASO

…and what if that might have been the intent of disclosure all along?

They would of course design such a tool as Snowden for just that purpose. The bummer is we can't discern this in actuality like we can Manning and Assange.

Snowden is too deeply buried behind "enemy" lines.

a reply to: ATODASO

If you think that fear of the NSA alone is the sole cause for people not speaking out then you already know what you're fighting against and can change it. Please go out there and make a difference!

I hope that you have some success. Speaking up about injustice is important for us to grow into a better nation.

That won't change the fact that there are multiple sociological issues at play here that are overlapping to create a result that we don't want to see remain.

Personally, the entire internet is designed to keep us from acting out.

Nowadays we rage against the machine from our behinds.

Mission accomplished? Nope... Just because there is silence doesn't mean everyone is hiding in a corner with the shivers... The silence could be for a reason which includes taking the spying aspect out of the equation... Most likely not but it's possible.

a reply to: intrptr

They would of course design such a tool as Snowden for just that purpose. The bummer is we can't discern this in actuality like we can Manning and Assange.

oh, but we can.

assange got railroaded on sexual assault charges and has effectively dropped off the radar, and chelsea manning is being driven insane in isolation.

snowden is living very comfortably in russia, and giving interviews to wired.

that should also tell us something about the real state of u.s./russian foreign relations.

That's been deemed illegal so many times. I wonder if your state already has delt with that.

I had an issue once where the prospective employer could not believe I didn't and never had a FB. I thought to myself this would not be a company I wanted to work at and asked for my resumé back.

originally posted by: Snarl

originally posted by: ATODASO
i'll reiterate the findings of that study. since snowden, 86% of people will tell you how they feel about controversial issues in person, but less than half feel comfortable expressing that opinion online.

Is that the NSA having such effect ... or is it the fact that my son's most recent employer told him he either allows them to look at his FB page, or no jobby?

Being on FB regularly and not using twitter that much, I know for a fact that Slayer is right on the money for that particular site as I am usually one of the single digit "likes" attributable to his political/societal commentary and see the same thing on my own feed and statuses.

I have posted from FB (using my real name), to national news sites that I would be very happy to see Obama and any other corrupt politician hang from the neck until dead fully expecting a visit from the SS with nary a peep.

Now that I've said it here on ATS that might change...

a reply to: ATODASO

This is an open invitation to the USA, NSA, CIA, FBI, and anyone else who IS reading. Im right here, I'm not hiding, come for me.

But first you'll need to figure out how to prove that I should have been placed on a terrorist watch list. Since I believe that peace can only come from peaceful non violent means, I cannot be a terrorist. When your military came to recruit me I said, "I refuse to take a man's life even to save my own, so I cannot be a terrorist. So by what right do you retain information on me? The patriot act only allows you to monitor suspected terrorists.

How can they possibly come after the ones who are not sheep? They should be afraid of me and you and avoid us at all costs.

Do you really think they want the publicity of coming after those of us that are educated enough in the truth to get people to start thinking about JFKs secret society speach, and assassination?

Do they want to destroy private banking, by having the ATS community prove that it is mathematically impossible to create a stable financial system if you allow usuary?

Do you think they want the whole world's eyes focused on the news at ATS?

The whole idea of secrecy is repugnant in a free society. Come after me and point your finger at yourself. I will not back down, I will not shut up. I welcome the day I get to face the world because the ones sworn to uphold the law are cowards.

The world will forgive me for my past, but will they forgive you? I will not be afraid of tyranny, I will stand for freedom.

a reply to: ATODASO

that should also tell us something about the real state of u.s./russian foreign relations.

Back to a more dangerous state, imo.

Our ever bomb diplomacy won't work there.

a reply to: intrptr

the u.s. sunk some deep tentacles, both financially and politically after the fall of the u.s.s.r.

there's a good reason nothing serious is going to jump off because of the ukraine situation, and why russia cuddling up to china will amount to nothing.

but that's waaaayyyy ot, and i'm gonna get post-yanked on my own #ing thread.

/shrug

Many years ago, almost geological time, I had a hobby (legal) that just seemed a bit weird to some people, anyway, the police finally got involved, and I found out my land line was tapped, so myself and a friend would always say 'bomb' somewhere in the conversation, I have no idea just how frustrated 'they' got with only half a conversation to listen to, as the recording did not start until a trigger word was spoken, these days of course the equipment is far more sophisticated and therefore very difficult to detect.