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Majority Of Americans Don't Mind Being Spied Upon, Pew Study Finds
In what is likely the most disappointing, if not unexpected, news of the day, we find that according to a just released Pew Research study, a substantial majority, or 56% of Americans, "say the National Security Agency’s (NSA) program tracking the telephone records of millions of Americans is an acceptable way for the government to investigate terrorism." Only 41% object to having every phone conversation intercepted, investigated, analyzed, and recorded for posterity. Sorry Edward Snowden: you just threw your life away for nothing. The sheep have been properly and thoroughly conditioned and brainwashed, which is why they continue to get precisely the government they so rightfully deserve.
More from Pew:
The latest national survey by the Pew Research Center and The Washington Post, conducted June 6-9 among 1,004 adults, finds no indications that last week’s revelations of the government’s collection of phone records and internet data have altered fundamental public views about the tradeoff between investigating possible terrorism and protecting personal privacy.
It just gets better:
Currently 62% say it is more important for the federal government to investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy. Just 34% say it is more important for the government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats.
These opinions have changed little since an ABC News/Washington Post survey in January
2006. Currently, there are only modest partisan differences in these opinions: 69% of Democrats say it is more important for the government to investigate terrorist threats, even at the expense of personal privacy, as do 62% of Republicans and 59% of independents.
However, while six-in-ten or more in older age groups say it is more important to investigate terrorism even if it intrudes on privacy, young people are divided: 51% say investigating terrorism is more important while 45% say it is more important for the government not to intrude on personal privacy, even if that limits its ability to investigate possible threats.
The survey finds that while there are apparent differences between the NSA surveillance programs under the Bush and Obama administrations, overall public reactions to both incidents are similar. Currently, 56% say it is acceptable that the NSA “has been getting secret court orders to track telephone calls of millions of Americans in an effort to investigate terrorism.”
In January 2006, a few weeks after initial new reports of the Bush administration’s surveillance program, 51% said it was acceptable for the NSA to investigate “people suspected of involvement with terrorism by secretly listening in on telephone calls and reading e-mails between some people in the United States and other countries, without first getting court approval to do so.”
Perhaps least surprising is that once the most vocal objector to "Dubya" pervasive surveillance, the Democrats, are now its most ardent defenders. And so once again, political party line stupidity trumps common sense.
Republicans and Democrats have had very different views of the two operations. Today, only about half of Republicans (52%) say it is acceptable for the NSA to obtain court orders to track phone call records of millions of Americans to investigate terrorism. In January 2006, fully 75% of Republicans said it was acceptable for the NSA to investigate suspected terrorists by listing in on phone calls and reading emails without court approval.
Democrats now view the NSA’s phone surveillance as acceptable by 64% to 34%. In January 2006, by a similar margin (61% to 36%), Democrats said it was unacceptable for the NSA to scrutinize phone calls and emails of suspected terrorists.
Of course, if the president was Romney, his head would already be on a stick. Metaphorically speaking of course.
Finally, the biggest danger to America it appears is not a turnkey totalitarian tyrant, but broad apathy as it turns out only one in four follow NSA News "very closely." The other 3 in 4 are far more concerned with who gets to fake-wed the fake-bachelorette this season, or who is the victor of Dancing with the Stars.
Roughly a quarter (27%) of Americans say they are following news about the government collecting Verizon phone records very closely. This is a relatively modest level of public interest. Only another 21% say they are following this fairly closely, while about half say they are following not too (17%) or not at all (35%) closely.
Interest in reports about the government tracking of e-mail and online activities is almost identical: 26% say they are following this story very closely, 33% not closely at all.
Attention to these stories is higher among Republicans and Republican-leaning independents: 32% are following reports about the government tracking phone records very closely, compared with 24% of Democrats and Democratic-leaning independents. The partisan gap in interest is almost identical when it comes to reports about government collecting email and other online information: 30% of Republicans and Republican-leaners are following very closely compared with 20% of Democrats and Democratic-leaners.
Overall, those who disagree with the government’s data monitoring are following the reports somewhat more closely than those who support them. Among those who find the government’s tracking of phone records to be unacceptable, 31% are following the story very closely, compared with 21% among those who say it is acceptable. Similarly with respect to reports about government monitoring of email and online activities, 28% of those who say this should not be done are following the news very closely, compared with 23% of those who approve of the practice.
Those who wish to be even more depressed can read on here.
As for Edward Snowden, hopefully this will teach you to throw away your life to liberate a bloated and apathetic society that couldn't care less if the slaughter-gate was slammed shut behind it, and just wants to have its rose-colored blinders on in perpetuity.
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May those 56% get what they truly deserve.
As long as I get ny food stamps you can spy on me. FEMA camp?, free meals...ooh yes please!
FUCKING SHEEP....to the slaughterhouse with all of'em. Think of all the soap to be had from their fat arse bodies.
Sorry, but the only appropriate response is "gee, WHOCOULDANODE?!"
Is anyone else sick and tired of being utterly unsurprised by all of this? And really, if you are surprised, were you born yesterday? This isn't newsworthy, this isn't news. This is obvious to anyone with even a slight familiarity with reality. Once the slave mentality is internalized, that's it. Period. Full stop. They've chosen their fate and have, quite admirably, decided to fall on their own sword.
There is no room left for anyone to deny what is going on here. None. I'm not sure how some of you continue to delude yourselves with fanciful notions of 'the straw that breaks the camel's back' with regard to this really quite long list of governmental abuses (surprise, surprise). Man is often a creature of infinite credulity, and complacency.
The dystopian futures you read about in fiction books, and the infamous totalitarian regimes of the 20th century and before... The former were not as fictional as we would like to believe, and the latter are not so far at all as we would hope to think... in fact... we're in one.
No one is coming to pinch, you aren't dreaming.
What is the POINT in denying it any longer?
Agreed. How did we get here again? Keep saying how we ended up here anyway.
Dup.
Trip.
My ZH friends...the problem isn't the government...the problem is the people. Forget about the government and focus on the people for that was once our strength and now our vulnerability. I fear nothing will protect us from what we have become.
Something to keep in mind...
Things are bad now for people like us BUT more people are awake than ever have been before. This site and others are proof, no?
I think of guys like Mises, Hayek, Rothbard, and even Ron Paul... These men were truly alone in their fight and because of people like them we are not.
We, the remnant, are closer than we've ever been no matter how depressing it may be today its still not as depressing as yesterday. We will win out we just have to keep fighting the battle for ideas...
Disappointing for sure if true. I suspect there may be more to this "poll" than meets the eye - what better way to condition (lube) the people to accept it, you know, since everybody else thinks it's ok.
If true, we deserve every fvcking inch of the POLE - with no lube!
Dumber than a bag of fucking rocks. As long as the sheeple have their EBT cards funded every month; as long as their Chalky phone still works; and as long as all of their favorite cable shows can keep them entertained, all is fine and well in delusional AmeriKa. I suspect though, this won't end well in 2014 when most 20 & 30 somethings wake up to being totally fucked bythe IRS and their brand, spanking new, health care system. Hey stupid fuck, guess what happened while you were asleep?
http://vegasxau.blogspot.com
O-baa-aaa-aaa-maphone
O-baa-aaa-aaa-maphone!
... hence majority of Americans are morons.
Hmmm. Wow...under this standard there would be no Bill of Rights to shred in the first place! ABSOLUTELY RIDICULOUS AND WRITTEN PURELY WITH THE INTEREST OF THE PURILE IN MIND. "Pew stinks indeed." Nobody is doing their DAY job when all they're doing is watching what someone else is up to. Sure..."crazy things on the night shift." I'm hip to that. But this is the National Security Agency. This is not you PRIVACY RIGHTS you morons at Pew. So next time FRAME THE QUESTION IN WAY THAT THE ACTIVITY IS IN ACTUALITY TAKING PLACE. (and no, i don't support Zero Hedge's "unlimited data download" policy either. if someone who believes in Government Period wants to prosecute wants to have at it here...i'll support Him/Her.)
Of course 47% of the folks who made up that "56%" were the welfare ticks and leeches
In other (somewhat older) news, 56% of American colonists think King George is just peachy. And in from NY, 56% of the people who had heard of the Haymarket bombing think that Wall Street is unfairly maligned. And a whopping 66% of the American public (what would later be called the silent majority) thinks that the incident in the Gulf of Tonkin justifies bombing the shit out of babies in Cambodia and Vietnam.
It has always been the way of Americans to place their kissers on the kiesters of those in power, until someone else comes along to give them a different kiester.
It's completely, fuckin irrelavent . It's a Strawman.
It would only matter if we were a DEMOCRACY.
That's why in their timeless and infinite wisdom, They did NOT set up a DEMOCRACY.
They Set up a DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC.
Where the Rights of the Many DO NOT Infringe upon the Rights of the Few.
If it was a DEMOCRACY in 1770 We would NOT have a Country today. The MAJORITY poll at that time was to stay with the British.
(and the money people in Europe (ie read Red Shield) Were pissed at us since then. AND, Have been trying to take over our money system since then. (and Jackson REALLY Fuckin pissed them off calling them leeches, That turned it personal).
It's been an little known multi-generational Family Feud, so to speak, since then. BREAK AMERICA)
To get people to argue about the results of a meaningless strawman strawpoll, IS THE WHOLE POINT OF THE POLLS.
The apathetic lug heads need to realize the gov can and will watch and listen to them (even when their phones are unplugged) 24/7, inside their homes, recording and storing all of it.
However the poll results may be fake in order to convince congress their jobs are not safe if they vote to protect privacy.
The Pew Research Center is an American think tank organization based in Washington, D.C. that provides information on issues, attitudes and trends shaping the United States and the world. Its president beginning January 2013 is Alan Murray, former deputy managing editor of The Wall Street Journal, replacing Andrew Kohut.[2]
The Center and its projects receive funding from The Pew Charitable Trusts.[3] In 1990, Donald S. Kellermann was named to serve as the first director of what was initially known as the Times Mirror Center. It was then part of the opinion polling operation run by Times Mirror, the parent of the Los Angeles Times.[4]
The Pew Global Attitudes Project is a series of worldwide public-opinion surveys and reports aimed at understanding worldwide attitudes on various issues. The Project is chaired by former U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and former U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations John Danforth.[5] The project is funded by the Pew Charitable Trusts, with a supplemental grant from the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pew_Research_Center
I wouldn't trust Pew.
Make that lunkheads.
Some men you....just can't reach. By "some men" I mean half the people in this god-forsaken country.
New government public relations slogan: Just consider us a friend request that hasn't been accepted yet!
Why don't they ask these do do birds why the goverment needs this information.
majority of Americans don't mind being spied upon
me neither
but I do admire those who courageously fight the system
or imagine that they courageously fight the system
NSA does not run its own agency, it's run like the rest of government by PRIVATE CONTRACTORS. Follow the money: data mining, and spying is a big business. It requires lots of equipment and man hours.
It's an $80 billion business, which is more money than governments spends on Social Security after collecting FICA taxes or what the government spends on Food Stamps($75 Billion.)
wait, is this like "most support stricter gun control" except... they don't?
Why do you think it's called a "Pew" poll. Ask Pepe Le Pew.
What the study doesn't say is that most American's would have a problem with police squads in tactical gear and black shiny boots kicking down their doors in the middle of the night searching for "evidence" without any justification.
How is it any different with your electronic documents?
Just cause you can't see it happening doesn't mean it's not.
A majority don't mind being spied upon and a "super majority" (that's two out of three) are children of "Big Z" while the other two out of three have been in the employ of Booz Allen and one out of three, that's Little Z, finds himself in the middle of the Venn diagram.
zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz... sorry... you were sleeple (i.e. sleeping sheeple)... my bad. Didn't mean to wake you up... go back to sleep.
http://tradewithdave.com/?p=16948
Just more evidence the human species (you can be sure the majority in other countries would feel the same way) is pathetic and deserves everything that will eventually be coming to it. I also like how most of these people would have probably be furious at this if Bush was in office right now yet because the half balck guy going on about hope and change is in office it is OK. People who have compared Obombya to Hitler are fairly accurate because of this blind following. It's sick.
I admire the people who try and do what's right for humanity like this guy did yet I feel pity for the people out there who still have hope and faith that the human species is special and worth "fighting" for. It's pretty clear humans need to be wiped off the planet if the majority are so dumb and useless they are willing to be controlled and spied on for their supposed protection from what is basically phantom terrorism because if terrorism actually existed in the way the sheeple are brainwashed to think it does then you'd be seeing events all the time rather than one physics and logic defying feat 12 years ago. Then of course to go with that you have the fact humans keep fighting each other because they live on different land masses. Then you have religion where people become crazy following them. Then you have reality tv and all this social web BS (got to see those 'tweets' from those celebrities) and how poor communication skills people have and the clear decline in intelligence from the masses. The human species is quite simply an embarrassment and it si probably the best evidence that there most likely isn't a personal god/creator where humans are its finest creation unless of course said creator made the species to be this dumb for pure amusement.
Ok well, at least most humans need to be eliminated. Those who actually value the abilty to think should be allowed to stay alive and maybe restart the species so it isn't so pathetic. I doubt if that is possible since it seems throughout history humans have been complete morons in one way or another.
The question should have been, "Do you mind the Government secretly spying on everything you do from your bank account, to your mistress, to your bar bills and grocery bills and your gambling"?
What really scares me is that the members on the House Intelligence committee say they didn't know this was happening. Are they that stupid, misinformed, or are they lying and part of the problem?
We're screwed either way.
Are they that stupid, misinformed, or are they lying and part of the problem?
All of the above just a matter of degrees depending upon the individual.
And I'll bet you'll really miss those deposits.
land of free my ass ...
This is the "news" that allows government to cite that the governed actually consent.
Maybe they knew government was listening to them give answers to the poll so they made sure they didn't say anything that would put them on Obamas watchlist? Or, Pew slanted the question by asking something like: "We haven't had a major terrorist attack in a decade due to enhanced intelligence snooping, do you think we should scale back this life saving tool for the sake of silly liberty?"
All I know is the majority of my neighbors have curtains in their windows. They have fenced yards. Put up vegetation to keep me from peaking in. They lock their cars. Park them in garages. They yell at kids who go on their lawn. Ask me if the mailman gave me their mail by mistake. They report the old man in the park who is just watching their kids play. Yeah, I think most Americans do want privacy. Their actions prove it. Who ever said government should keep doing this should allow me to walk into their living room unaanounced. Let me record thier phone conservations. Let me follow them around town. Then let's see if they get the point....
"The sheep have been properly and thoroughly conditioned and brainwashed, which is why they continue to get precisely the government they so rightfully deserve."
Does anyone else see a logical fallacy in that statement?
So can those of us that are against being spied upon opt out?
.. A nation wide vote, not some 1/10000 of a % of a BS survey which doesnt ratify breaking the law again... Should be done with another vote...
Should the death penalty be used against those traitors that lied to us into wars, and continue to rob trillions from the world citizens
Another way of softening the blow on Snowden. A thousand people who have nothing better to do are the same kind who would allow such intrusions on their lives.
In another highly respected poll conducted by PEW, it was found that Americans not only didn't mind phone monitoring, but that 666% preferred to be monitored while masturbating and beating their children, though the percentage declined somewhat for those who beat their children while masturbating.
Well your Pew study is fucking wrong. Same algos that do popularity polls and Presidential Campaign voting logs I would imagine, unless your sampling from another planet.
Form public perception through these type of bullshut samples as a tool for damage control. Reminds me of that Adam Sandler movie Billy Madison when little kid pissed his pants at school and Adam made it the cool and hip thing to do amongst the other children that were laughing earlier.
Definition, if the pole reflects americans dont seem to mind, I shouldn't voice my outrage and seem the odd man out. Sheep mentality. Popular tactic for conformity.
Even if your doing nothing wrong. You should be appauled of the government abuse of intrusion recording all your private passwords, bank account numbers cc accounts etc.
The potential for abuse is extremely high especially armed with the knowledge that they are actively filling jails as if there were no tommorow. Planting child porn on your PC is not beneath them either. Were living in the age of Treason in case you haven't noticed.
Selling your data for profit isn't off the table either. I'm pissed, I don't know about you or the mainstream america, but I am on a mission to do away with allot of digital conveniences I have been spoiled with.
Yes! I do fucking mind...
Yep. In short, this is all propaganda.
Now that I know I'm being monitored, I am going to create all kinds of terrorist-like phone use patterns. Does anyone have the terrorist yellow pages handy?
Just join a Constitutional based assosiation that believe in Liberty Freedom and The Bill of Rights, That will place you front and center of every fusion center east of the Mississippi.
I ran the Android rooting software through my phone and tablet and the who's who of the spook community are well represented and then some. Screen shot and saved.
Mentioning Al Queada won't get you attention.. Posting about joining the sovereign citizen movement will put a boot to your front door for sure.
Christian values and a supporter of the second amendment are good triggers too.
Molan Labe bitchez
Does anyone have a phone that allows you to deactivate "voice commands". I hate it it when the damn phone thinks I want it to do something. I believe that the government uses this "feature".
I know that this cannot be consumer driven based on my conversations with other people.
Follow this link to other cell phone rooting programs, iPhone too. Full administrative control of your device.
http://androidsecuritytest.com/
Fascism always starts with high approval rates.
Right to privacy is an individual right and has nothing to do with others opinions.
I choose to keep my right to privacy, If 45% choose to give this right away it should not effect my choice.
Please mister NSA man stop watching my shit, go masturbate to someone elses life.
Edit: The ad at the top of the page may be a little off, It says 2 people are spying on me right now.
Baa, baa, baa.
WITH ALL THESE PRISM STUFF AND BULLSHIT AND HALF OF AMERICANS DON'T CARE ABOUT, WHY THE NSA, CIA & FBI WERE NOT ABLE TO STOP THE BOSTON BOMBER ? WHY THEY ARE NOT ABLE TO STOP EVERYTHING ? OR IS THIS PRISM JUST A NEW MONEY MACHINE WITH SELLING DATA LIKE GOOGLE ANALYTICS ETC AND MR. SNOWDEN JUST MISSED THE POINT ?
BUT I FIND IT STUPID TO HAVE THOUGHT OR BELIEVED THAT NOTHING LIKE PRISM EXISTS .... I lived in East Germany and had the STASI in the back :) ... So no surprise about PRISM !!!!!!!!
a MAJORITY of people thought the earth was flat.....
a MAJORITY of people elected OBAMA
we all know that our government would never influence a phoney poll using the IRS to deliver a message
we all know that we have nothing to FEAR from our government
its only the wacko birds who want their CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHTS
just listen to the calm level headed people like PELOSI FEINSTEIN MCDERMOTT GUAM JOHNSON BOXER LEAKEY LEAHY FRANKEN SCHUMER MUMBLES REID SHEILA JACKSON LEIGH JOHN CONYERS...
This country is 56% over-populated.
It would be interesting to dig deeper into this story and reveal just what Booz and other contractors' super computers are compiling with data mining and behavior tracking. Does anyone trust them? Do you trust Yahoo, Google, Verizon, Facebook and Dropbox anymore? Perhaps Snowden has more to reveal?