The Germans Call It: Soft Totalitarianism

[Doppel]

Would anyone care to provide some examples of how their freedom of expression has been curtailed recently? Has anyone here been unable to say or publish something that they wanted to say or publish? Has anyone here been forbidden from associating with other people/groups politically?

I think this has had a chilling effect. I cannot be the only one in the nation who is more aware of this and putting more thought into things I may write to, say, a family member on Gmail about my honest thoughts about all this; perhaps hiding candor. I know my email is there forever, and I have no faith whatsoever that it won't be automatically dragnetted in the future along with billions of other emails. And, in light of articles like this: http://www.wired.com/opinion/2013/0...is-the-wrong-way-to-think-about-surveillance/ I don't think this is an extreme view at all.

I have always known that in the future all communications would be pored over by machine and we get closer every day.

Despite Obama's objections and claims of transparency, this is nothing of the sort. Nobody has any idea what the government is doing until whistle blowers tell us.