Who said anything of the sort? Do you seriously think that Martin Luther King did not consider himself an adversary of what he fought? Do you think that Mahatma Gandhi (who was the granddaddy of non-violent action) did not see British colonial rule in an adversarial light? Hell, man, both of them worked very hard to throw spanners in the works of the systems that oppressed them - that’s the point of non-violent action - and both of them were murdered because of it. Come to think of it, so was Malcolm X. The damnable thing is that systemic racism is still a factor nearly 50 years after those events in your country - consider the number of young black men in jail now, as opposed to then.
Do you seriously think that Greenwald et al are advocating revolution? Funny thing that - I haven’t seen it. I’ve always got the impression that they are pointing out something they consider seriously wrong, and saying, “Listen up, people! We need to fix this! You can’t let it slide!” I happen to agree with that.
So do not put words in my mouth, please - that particular straw man won’t cut it. I don’t care how you handle it, provided you get off the fence and do so. If you stay on the fence, your options start running out.
If, on the other hand, you honestly think that the NSA and your government have had your interests at heart with these programmes, fine, say so. I’d rather deal with an honest opponent than someone who attacks the messengers for being too “aggressive” about getting the message out, because otherwise he’d… you know… actually have to take a stand.
