Wow, the government has access to all the online and phone information available about me and everyone else…I never saw that coming.
I personally don’t care if Uncle Sam knows how many times I’ve searched for “Topless Naughty Nurses in Thongs,” but I am shocked, shocked, I tell you, that the government would…sorry, I can’t keep a straight face.
Raise your hand if you are truly surprised that the government has been pulling together all available information on as many people as possible. If you raised your hand, look up naive in Webster’s; I think you’ll see your picture.
Since the days of the ink pot and the quill pen, the government has been keeping tabs on its citizens. The only thing different about America 2013 is that we went and made it too fucking easy for the government to know shit the government doesn’t need to know.
Little Arnie stud muffin can’t comprehend that the picture of his dong he sent to that girl he met at church camp last summer will always be available to any person with an internet connection…how can he understand that his government (a creature that thrives on knowing secrets) loves that it can tell with a few key strokes where Arnie and his cell phone were all day.
“Well, if you don’t have anything to hide why does it bother you?”
The government doesn’t need to know that I requested the latest and supposedly last Charlaine Harris, Sookie Stackhouse novel from the Geauga County Library last week.
“The government is keeping us safe.”
Hell, the government was warned about the 9/11 terrorists and didn’t do squat. The government knew the oldest Boston Marathon bomber was up to no good and didn’t do squat. What good is all that information if they don’t use it to keep us healthy and unexploded?
Everything you email everybody winds up in the government’s info-hungry stomach. They know everything about you. The “Cloud” is like an internet party line.
History lesson for the kids…a party line was a phone line that a number of homes shared. Each home had a separate phone number, but each number caused a different ring sequence. My Grandfather’s ring sequence was two long rings and a short ring. Everybody that shared the phone line knew my Grandpa got a call if they knew his ring sequence. Nosy neighbors would listen to other people’s phone calls…just like today!
We can’t put this toothpaste back in the tube. That game is way over. The government has always grabbed what bits it could about folks. You never know when you might want to blackmail a Kennedy with information that they were sleeping with a known Nazi sympathizer during WW II (true story).
I would be outraged, but I’ve known for a long time that the scariest words in any language are, “Hello, I’m from the government, and I’m here to help you.”
If you want no risks, you have to be totally off the grid. Unfortunately living off the grid is nearly impossible. The government knows what I buy at Giant Eagle, Winn Dixie, Acme Markets, Pet Supplies Plus, Pet Smart, Kmart, and anywhere else I have a connivance card. I am scrutinized and digitized every day of my life.
My only comfort is that I’m not important enough to squash. I don’t have much money, so I don’t give any of it to Political Action Committees or political parties. If someone held a gun to my head in an attempt to get money, they’d either have to shoot or go away empty handed.
Granted, a search of my Facebook page would reveal that I am a wild-eyed liberal with some crazy friends, but I don’t advocate the violent overthrow of anything. If being liberal ever becomes a crime with jail time, I have convicted myself.
What I find truly nutty is the notion that conservatives have that spying on hippies is good and spying on conservatives is bad. Realizing that our government spies on everyone, you would think that we could agree that spying is bad…nope, spying on hippies is good…spying on the Tea Party is bad…or…spying on the Tea Party is good and spying on Hippies is bad.
Never the twain shall meet. It’s just another place the government can divide and conquer the populace.
Do not despair that your government is spying on you. It always has. I’m of the opinion that we don’t spy on our own government enough. If the government has to know about my favorite porn sites, I think I should be able to find out which corporations own which politicians…oh wait…we already can, and we don’t seem to give an honest, collective shit about it, as long as the politicians make noises agreeable to us when she or he speaks in public.