Wednesday, October 09, 2013
Reynolds Wrap
Was reading some comment on the NSA/Snowden thing, and was suddenly struck by the sheer oddness of the situation.
I've talked about this before, but didn't spot the oddness. I've understood since the '70s that CIA operates domestically, and I've understood since the '80s that NSA monitors absolutely everything. I can't be alone in this; lots of Americans were in similar situations at various times, so lots of Americans have reached the same understanding in varying degrees of certainty and detail.
Snowden's news shouldn't have been news.
Why was it?
The power of the pooh-pooh, that's why. Media and commentators on all "sides" roared and thundered whenever a mere human tried to speak a tiny piece of truth. Media and commentators on all "sides" constantly conflated dumb conspiracy theories (some of which were clearly manufactured by AP's working for the secret police) with real suspicions based on real observations. Any attempt to note a problem was instantly coated with tinfoil.
Snowden has momentarily broken through the tinfoil curtain. Because he had documents, and because he had friends in non-extraditable places, he was able to escape and speak a very large piece of the truth.
It will be interesting to watch the repair process. Snowden can't be easily suicided, so the Reynolds Wrap will have to be patched elsewhere.
¶ 2:45 AM 
