> He doesn't have to convince HN readers that this is worth stopping our daily lives for to stand against, he has to convince the general public.
The opinion of the general public doesn't matter. It's been being effectively managed for years, and that won't change now. The proles will never revolt.
The fact is, these programs existing and being public knowledge to "foreign entities" (Obama's words), pose an existential threat to Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and any other US-based company that intends to make money handling the private data of those filthy foreigners (whom outnumber US citizens on the internet something like a dozen to one).
Sure, tell everyone who will listen. But you'll find that most people don't give a fuck, and wouldn't know what to do with the information even if they did.
This change, if it comes, will come from industry, as all major internal policy changes in US government have for decades.
What you say may be true. But history has shown that people can give a fuck and policy change can come from the people--even recently with ballot initiatives. Corporations didn't overturn Ohio's SB5. Corporations didn't legalize and regulate cannabis in Colorado and Washington. Corporations didn't pass the Dream Act in Maryland. Corporations didn't pass multi-state initiatives to legalize gay marriage. People did.
So independent of my opinion, there's demonstronably a non-trivial chance that you're wrong. And from chances like that, movements are born.
The opinion of the general public doesn't matter. It's been being effectively managed for years, and that won't change now. The proles will never revolt.
The fact is, these programs existing and being public knowledge to "foreign entities" (Obama's words), pose an existential threat to Google, Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, and any other US-based company that intends to make money handling the private data of those filthy foreigners (whom outnumber US citizens on the internet something like a dozen to one).
Sure, tell everyone who will listen. But you'll find that most people don't give a fuck, and wouldn't know what to do with the information even if they did.
This change, if it comes, will come from industry, as all major internal policy changes in US government have for decades.