20) USA Government Illegally Spies On Its Citizens
George Orwell’s book 1984 was meant to be a warning, not a ‘how to’ book! Nonetheless, it seems as if the once laughed at dystopian fantasy is now reality.
Thanks to the likes of Edward Snowden and other activists, it is now well-known that the NSA has been illegally eavesdropping on the American populace, as well as collecting cell phone metadata for over a decade. Regardless of the truth bombs that have been revealed in recent years, most people would like to deny this reality.
The popular argument is that surveillance protects the populace from terrorist attacks such as 9/11 (See #25), but this stance has its flaws. Not only is there no evidence that the NSA has protected the populace from terrorism, there is growing evidence that it makes citizens more vulnerable. Thanks to revelations about the NSA and their Prism project, it is now known that the scope of the NSA’s eavesdropping is even beyond what was originally believed.
In June of 2014, the Washington Post reported that almost 90% of the data being collected by NSA surveillance programs is from Internet users with no connection to terrorist activities. According to the American Civil Liberties Union, this is in clear violation of the constitution. At present, the ACLU is pursuing a lawsuit against the NSA, claiming that the mass collection of data violates the Fourth Amendment right of privacy as well as the First Amendment rights of free speech and association.
