The ugly fact: our government is capturing all of our phone records. It reportedly is grabbing our credit card information, as well tracking us online. The latest “defense” of this practice? Such mined data’s no worse than the information we voluntarily provide Google or Facebook or other big, bad corporations.
This after-the-fact rationalization comes up short, however, missing that crucial “voluntary” aspect, whereby we get to choose what information we give to a corporation, including providing none at all. That’s not how the National Security Agency works. The NSA just grabs our information without our consent.
What other possible differences might there be?
There’s the crucial matter of degree, too. “The government possesses the ultimate executive power,” argued The Atlantic’s Marc Ambinder, author of Deep State, appearing on “All In with Chris Hayes” on MSNBC. “I mean, it can jail you, it can detain you, it can kill you.”
“Even though the Obama campaign and Apple … know more about me than perhaps members of my family, and probably the government,” Ambinder added, “what the government can do with that information is much different than what a corporation can do. They can make me buy something or vote for someone; the government can imprison me.”
Mr. Ambinder is absolutely correct … except for his ridiculous statement that campaigns can “make” you vote for their candidate or that corporations can “make” you buy their products. The crucial difference is between the arts of persuasion (including tempting, cajoling, nudging) on the one hand, and sheer homicidal force coupled with kleptomaniacal thievery on the other.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.
10 replies on “Google or Government?”
You know where the merchant is going and can shield yourself and wallet from them. You can refuse to participate. With government there is no defense and the damages will be extracted with the not so gently applied tip of its bayonet if you refuse to “voluntarily” relinquish them.
There is no rational basis for a comparison of the two processes.
The NSA is only doing it to keep us safe.
Unlike the IRS who used it to target adversaries of the adminstration, suppress free speech, and violate the Constitution.
Totally different federal bureaucracy.
I feel much better.
If it weren’t for the federal government violating the Constitution and warrantlessly eavesdropping on us for the past SEVEN YEARS, America marathon runners might get blown up.
Not to worry, a federal court says its ok for them to violate the Constitution.
BTW, the Constitution says that a federal court has no authority to bypass the Constitution.
The constitution @ amendment fourth protects us … people’s persons and property.
The phone records here are neither. The records belong to the companies the created and maintain them.
Thus- while these may be acts of a fascist, out of control dictatorship — they are not a constitutional violation of due process.
The same government that collects mountains of information on law-abiding American citizens ignored multiple warnings from various sources about the Tsarnaev brothers. One cannot help but question the motives.
The Executive Branch then asserted the power to wiretap and to ”bug” in two types of national security situations, against domestic subversion and against foreign intelligence operations, first basing its authority on a theory of ”inherent” presidential power and then in the Supreme Court withdrawing to the argument that such surveillance was a ”reasonable” search and seizure and therefore valid under the Fourth Amendment. Unanimously, the Court held that at least in cases of domestic subversive investigations, compliance with the warrant provisions of the Fourth Amendment was required.
Who I call and when is part of my records and my private data which the phone companies violated, which is why they sought and recieved immunization from prosecution before releasing the records.
Mr. Ambinder is absolutely correct “… except for his ridiculous statement that campaigns can “make” you vote for their candidate or that corporations can “make” you buy their products. The crucial difference is between the arts of persuasion (including tempting, cajoling, nudging) on the one hand, and sheer homicidal force coupled with kleptomaniacal thievery on the other.”
Making people purchase a product against their will is also another wealth-destroying activity of oversized government, not companies! That was a truly rediculous statement, and Ambinder should retract it.
They can’t “make” you buy Obamacare, can they? They can just fine the hell out of you for not buying their product.
“The crucial difference is between the arts of persuasion (including tempting, cajoling, nudging) on the one hand, and sheer homicidal force coupled with kleptomaniacal thievery on the other. … This is Common Sense.”
I agree, and this is a distinction that eludes many.
Occasionally I run into someone who says “Libertarianism will never catch on because it’s every man for himself.” The believe the “social contract” is that we’ll take care of those in the poor house via government.
If government is taking from some, only to give it to someone else, it’s politicians deciding who gets what. So instead of “every man for himself”, what we get is “every man for himself in getting their living from the government at the whim of politicians.”
I’d rather make my own decisions and choose my own options, rather than have my well being and happiness subject to some politician’s or bureaucrat’s whim.