[lbo-talk] Fwd: Hands off my metadata

Wojtek S wsoko52 at gmail.com
Fri Jul 5 07:33:11 PDT 2013


Andie: "A Pew poll of June 6-9 found that 56% of those polled thought the NSA program was ok, 41% did not. 61% thought investigating terrorism was more important than privacy, 34% vice versa. The approval for spring increased with age, 60% of older people (undefined in report of poll) approving of NSA spying, 51% of of younger people. The change in attitudes are highly partisan: 75% of Reps approved an NSA program like this in 2006 ( this must have been the total information control program proposed under Bush, only 52% do today. In 2006, Democrats disapproved of Bush's NSA program by 64% to 31%; they flip almost exactly with Obama's program, 61% yes, 34% no. Reported in Wash Times, June 11, 2013."

[WS:] Your point about partisanship seems valid. However, my point about spying being inconsequential for the great majority of people stands, and it is supported by the poll data that you cite. Most people do not see it as a big problem because the probability of people like them suffering negative consequences of it is close to nil. It is a political issue for them - it is not a problem if "our" administration does it, but it becomes a problem if "their" administration does it.

I take your point about intellectuals - I just tried to provide some explanation of what I see as irrational over-reaction from liberal and left wing intellectual commodity producers - academics, etc. I take your point that this is a very small group and does not cover most knowledge workers.

I take your point that partisanship provides a better explanation, although I still insist that availability heuristic bias plays a big role in perceptions of both spying and terrorism.

One more remark - I consider "privacy" to be an ueber-petite bourgeois concept, like "moral decency" or "good character" - I cannot help but laugh when someone says that I should be concerned about it.

-- Wojtek

"An anarchist is a neoliberal without money."



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