far worse asymmetry: The Government can spy on citizens, but citizens can't spy on their government.
This is precisely backwards of a free society.
The Snowden episode both comically and tragically exemplifies this: He is an outlaw for giving the citizens visibility into the government's surveillance of those citizens.
National security justifies government secrecy? I believe the opposite. Government secrecy jeopardizes the security of a free nation, turning it into an unfree one. It protects and enables corruption and hypocrisy. And it is used FAR more often in government acts the violate the principles of freedom, fairness and justice.
The common argument against privacy, that "If you have nothing to hide you have no need for privacy", while fallacious when applied to citizens is spot on when applied to government (the entity with all the power).
The government should have nearly nothing to hide if it is doing nothing wrong. Most of the justified cases are far outweighed by the dangers of the unjustified ones. It's not worth the trade. The only secrets that should be allowed are those that protect regular citizens, not the government or any of its agents.
He’s an outlaw for having stolen highly sensitive classified info much of which was unrelated to domestic surveillance. He doused gasoline and lit a match over a good portion of our secret military ops.
Just because the government deems something "highly sensitive classified info" doesn't mean it should be, especially not with the US's history. Not that there are better countries, but considering what the US has done in the recent past, it shouldn't be trusted.
I have never looked over the details of what Snowden made public. Can you give examples of info he released that does not pertain to mass surveillance?
This is precisely backwards of a free society.
The Snowden episode both comically and tragically exemplifies this: He is an outlaw for giving the citizens visibility into the government's surveillance of those citizens.
National security justifies government secrecy? I believe the opposite. Government secrecy jeopardizes the security of a free nation, turning it into an unfree one. It protects and enables corruption and hypocrisy. And it is used FAR more often in government acts the violate the principles of freedom, fairness and justice.