German TV: Snowden Says NSA Also Spies on Industry

[mindwalker_i]

51. I'm sure you are aware that this has not gone to the Supreme court yet

What I was referring to was the article in the NY Times which referred to the commission, set up by Obama, that concluded that the NSA spying was illegal. I can't find that article, but here is one that links to many other articles:

link

There have also been quite a few posts here on DU about it.

The core of the argument, generally, is that the collection of phone and data records by the NSA violates the 4th amendment, and the recent conclusion from the panel was that the section of the patriot act used to justify the legality did not, in fact, do so. That's the legal aspect. What I and may other people contend is that having the government spy on its citizens are very bad for democracy, specifically that people won't argue against what their government is doing because they are afraid of retaliation from that government.

The arguments presented in this thread appear to be brushing off concerns about the NSA spying, in effect saying that it doesn't matter for a variety of reasons: it's just metadata so it's not really spying, or in this case about industrial espionage, Germany is doing it too so we shouldn't worry about it. The conclusion is then that we (citizens) should let the government/NSA do whatever they are doing regardless of whether it will be damaging to the country or democracy.

But I'm sure I'm just too stupid to understand your argument.