> A government is far more likely to oppress you, deny you rights, blackmail you for political reasons, etc. because it has the resources to do so.
I don't know... you're asserting as a fact here that one is more likely to be oppressed or blackmailed by the USG than by a criminal. But for blackmail alone there are thousands of criminal cases per year in the US, and an incalculable amount of "oppression" caused by criminals generally. What are the numbers for USG cases of blackmail each year? I guess they wouldn't be tallied... But I'd have to estimate that they're somewhat lower.
Criminals and Governments have a long history rich for data mining. If someone wanted to do that study they could.
Asking for facts elides the far more nuanced question of whether it is good for the American Government Marketing Team to continue to operate a known blacksite when the American public is auditing security practices.
The problem with this line of thought is that large criminal enterprises have political goals, and sufficiently large governments have criminal elements with criminal goals within 'em.
who's more likely to work at the NSA? A man who respects the constitution or a criminal? as the NSA grows in both size and power the answer will become clear. As an nsa employee you'll quit or expose secrets when things get sketchy. the only people stick around will be... what exactly?
> Criminals by and large just want money, governments want power. That makes them a far more serious threat.
It's really, really easy to say this living in a place where the rule of law is reasonably robust. There are many parts of the world where this isn't the case.
I am living in Indonesia right now. I would say at first I agreed with you. However what I see as time goes on is that the rule of law in the US is largely an elaborate illusion.
The point of rule of law is supposed to be that the government is bound by the laws. Calling this "robust" with regard to the NSA is the equivalent of putting ones head in the sand....
>There are many parts of the world where this isn't the case.
There are even more parts of the world where the "rule of law" is what opresses people rather than criminals. Dictatorships, third world monarchies, banana republics etc. And sometimes, criminals and an opressive government go hand in hand, as in some latin american countries...
BTW, the district in Indonesia which has the best government is a monarchy (the Sultanate of Jogjakarta). It is a Constitutional Monarchy and the Sultan does not have legislative power (only executive power).
I will admit though that as an American it seems weird to have a Sultan of a small district in a larger parliamentary democracy. It would be like having a King of New Hampshire....
A government is far more likely to oppress you, deny you rights, blackmail you for political reasons, etc. because it has the resources to do so.