NSA good guys

[Lodewijk andré de la porte]

I haven't been able to satisfy any clear conditions for being good or bad
guys. Not even for being patriots or not.

Ultimately it doesn't matter. Their jobs are inherently evil. Spying always
has been, but this is different because it involves everyone (even without
being suspect) and costs for additional invasion of privacy\surveillance is
negligible. Meaning a single person that doesn't do his/her job can ruin
the world (in *many* scenario's). Looking at Snowden there is not the kind
of security procedures to prevent it, either.

So. Are the NSA guys good guys? Well. They're the enemy of the people, as
they invade their privacy and therewith their safety. If you can be
blackmailed, studied, influenced, etc. you are weak and vulnerable.
Preaching to the choir, I guess. So I cannot call them good guys by a very
long shot.

Are the NSA guys bad guys? Well, they do anything to protect their nation
from whatever attack could happen (bad for non-US; me). They steal secrets
for their government (bad for non-US; me). They assist foreign secret
agencies in subverting or avoiding legal restrictions put in place to
protect citizens as (real/wise/elected) politicians see fit. (very bad for
non-US; me)

Uh. Yeah. I guess they're the bad guys. I usually feel like they are
soldiers on a certain mission, and so no blame comes to them. But I feel
more strongly that the organization is build to produce law-breaking,
privacy-destroying, unethical, unfriendly, aggressive, anticompetative,
distracting and confusing and ultimately just *mean* practices.

So yes: the NSA is *EVIL* to the maximum realistic extend.

The NSA's people enjoy a margin of appreciation. They're doing a job. They
have their reasons. But I do believe most of them are keenly aware of the
extremely large quantity of thoroughly unethical things their organization
is doing, and must be considered at least partially responsible.
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