Quote:
Originally Posted by Sregener
And what groups may be persecuted or found to be "suspicious" and worthy of extra scrutiny? Most innocent behavior, when viewed skeptically and not given the benefit of the doubt, can be considered worthy of prosecution by an over-eager government. Historically, ethnic, racial and religious groups have all been targeted by governments and have faced every form of persecution imaginable. Snooping on its citizens is a very valuable tool for totalitarianism.
|
The current government has already started abusing information. Just the latest scandal is that the IRS (US tax agency) has been persecuting conservative political groups (
http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/politi...tive-targeting is one place to start). All the higher-ups who would have to approve this have been completely denying responsibility and distancing themselves, and the media is letting them get away with it. This should still be a major story, but instead we've heard 100x more on new babies in other countries than a huge corruption scandal in our own government.
Quote:
Originally Posted by HansTWN
I usually see it the other way around. In many European countries engineers run the show. And they never want to change.
|
Resistance to change is one of the fundamental human traits, unfortunately.
OT: So far, the only real fallout from this is that bogus patents are being held up to light, and the issues with the USPTO are actually being talked about. So that's all good.