Circles probably matter. I am actively in communication with several hundred people of all ages outside of tech. I have never heard anyone say anything except: (1) positive of Snowden, and (2) negative of the NSA.
US gets away with it because no one can challenge their military might, Israel gets away with it because any criticism of the state is “anti-Semitic”. Not the same thing
Even the US had big scandals with Abu Ghraib and waterboarding, with big public debates. Even if this was just about public image and hypocritical, not about real values, it shows some capacity for shame.
Though this may be changing now with Trump and the israelification of america.
Big scandals that led to... prosecutions of the people involved at a high level? Systemic change?
Come on... Snowden told us that we were all being spied on and we made some movies, some books, a lot of blog posts and that was it.
Abu Ghraib? The people literally on film doing things were prosecuted, and it was passed off as an essentially low-level problem.
Gitmo still exists and has prisoners.
We invaded Iraq on a lie, literally lied to the UN about a nuclear threat that didn't exist. Elected that guy a second time, just like Reagan and Nixon and Trump.
What we're good at is public debate that goes nowhere and losing wars in the Middle East.
...Did you just emerge from a bunker that you entered in 1946? Here in 2026 we're on quite a losing streak against MUCH weaker opponents. I mean I get it, you're doing the "Jewish conspiracy" thing and reality, truth, words having meanings are all inconsequential to you, but you have to try harder than this.
