Spying Fallout: German Trust in United States Plummets (+ key resource for breaking out of PRISM)

[BelgianMadCow]

The NSA spying scandals have taken a toll on Germans' opinion of their longtime ally, according to a new survey. Mistrust in the United States has skyrocketed, and more Germans are viewing whistleblower Edward Snowden as a hero.

A string of NSA spying scandals has sent Germans' trust in the United States plummeting, with only a third saying they view their longtime ally as a trustworthy partner, a recent opinion poll has found.

The survey, commissioned by public broadcaster ARD and daily newspaper Die Welt, found that only 35 percent of Germans considered the US government trustworthy -- numbers not seen since the times of highly unpopular President George W. Bush. Forty-three percent said they were satisfied with the work of US President Barack Obama. Just a year ago, he enjoyed the backing of 75 percent of Germans.

The results appear to be a strong indictment of the pervasive US surveillance programs uncovered through classified documents leaked by former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden -- whom 60 percent of respondents consider a hero. Despite that strong majority support, Germans were evenly split over the question of whether their country should offer Snowden asylum, with 46 percent saying "yes" and 48 percent saying "no."

from Der Spiegel (in english).

What this article doesn't mention is that Germans are also mad at their own government, which is seen as colluding with the US to some degree, and which only started caring about the NSA spying when Merkel was the target. Note also that even at the height of the Merkel flap the german govt did NOT press for fast-tracking the new EU privacy directive that is in the works, in spite of several countries in favor of that.

Those on DU that say everybody spies have a point. And when that's spying on heads of state, so be it. Goes with the function, so to speak. Shocking, when it's "allies", but still. It's the wholesale spying that infuriates me, and I don't care which government does it to whose citizens. All of us who believe that governments are gonna change in this respect out of themselves, are deluded. We will have to put up more popular resistance.

I propose https://prism-break.org/ for a start. I'm among those who "knew" all along how bad it was (reading DU) and I've been using several of the listed programs for years.

Agent Mike

[dipsydoodle]

1. And those who get mad at their own government,

given half a brain, don't vote them in again.

[BelgianMadCow]

3. I guess the approval of Merkel's "stability" in the EZ-crisis

outweighed other concerns for a large number of Germans. This time.

If you were referring to the german election, of course

[dipsydoodle]

6. I appreciate they do so on balance.

[BelgianMadCow]

11. I would so vote for Sarah Wagenknecht

Look at how this thread fares. Imagine we were in Bush times....

[VanillaRhapsody]

2. I chuckled when I heard that Brazil ALSO spies on American Diplomats!

[dipsydoodle]

5. Different scale hardly worth the mention.

Miniscule compared withe NSA.

[VanillaRhapsody]

7. Now I am chuckling again with YOUR response!

[Cali_Democrat]

4. These same guys elect Merkel's conservative party (Merkel's Christian Democratic Union)

not exactly the kind of folks I would look up to if you know what I mean.

[BelgianMadCow]

8. Merkel's CDU got 41,5 % of the vote. 65 % of Germans don't approve of the US

So that reasoning doesn't carry water.

I very much look op to the german popular resistance to surveillance states. What I read on the conservative Frankfurter Allgemeine makes more sense than what I read on DU, on this topic.

edited for bad math 100-35 = 65 not 75

[Cali_Democrat]

9. They are being led by a conservative and she won a 3rd term recently

because of the German voters.

Bottom line.

I don't like conservatives and I'm not going to fawn over Germans who elect conservatives like Merkel to lead them for so long.

Sorry.

[BelgianMadCow]

10. Social Democrats + Greens + (anti-capitalist) Left got 43% of the vote

and you're trying to characterise that entire society, which LED the resistance against ACTA, as conservative, in order to detract from the message of my OP I presume? Germany is one of the few functioning democracies left, in the West, imho. I don't consider the US, the Uk or Belgium among them.

It must be an unpleasant messsage. But it's your right to dismiss it.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

12. 35% of Germans trust our government. About the same as the % of Americans who trust our government.

Government, even in its best state, is but a necessary evil; in its worst state, an intolerable one. Thomas Paine