Nothing to Hide? Then Show Me Your Guns

Glenn Greenwald has a superb post on Salon about the invasive and pervasive American surveillance state.

Read the whole thing, but don't miss the comments, in which we find a few extremely useful gems.

Dan of Steele wrote:

I've done nothing wrong and have nothing to hide.
You can't imagine how many times I hear this.

Glenn responds:

Ask those people, then, if they would let you set up a camera in their bedroom and a constantly running recording device on their phones, and ask them to give you all the passwords to their email accounts and bank and phone records.

Pedinska adds another pertinent question.

...how many, and what kind of, guns they own.

At that point, the cognitive dissonance sets in so rapidly and violently that it either shuts their brains down completely or creates imminent stroke conditions.

And Magritte's pipe reminds us of a pertinent quote.

A suitable response to those people would be a quote that another reader posted a few days ago:

"If one would give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest man, I would find something in them to have him hanged" -Cardinal Richelieu

If those same people heard about the same pervasive surveillance happening in, oh, let's say, Iran, China or Russia, I'm willing to bet lots that they would be outraged.

And when all else fails, memorize and recite the bottom fucking line:

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no Warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by Oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

Cross-posted at BlueGrassRoots.