I agree with you on the complexity of the issue, and on the basic morality of spying.
Thing is though, that’s not really whats in question here, is it? This is actually what I mean about a straw man argument, in practice, if every country has spies, this should balance itself out. I don’t have a solution for this, so I wont offer an opinion on it either. But that’s not whats at the heart of the Snowden revelations either.
The heart of the matter is that the NSA has obtained some very broad powers for spying, has increased its infrastructure and personnel, has transgressed peoples privacy beyond what they have been allowed to consent and done so right under their nose, has lied to lawmakers and ostensibly has no oversight or tested legal framework to engage in its activities. All in the name of fighting terrorism/sts.
There’s a lot of people who, while they don’t like it, are willing to turn a blind eye to this because they believe this will keep them safe. They still TRUST the NSA and the goverment to act in good faith on their behalf.
The heart of the matter is that these powers are being used for something other than fighting the bad guys. And the only way that this can be squared, legally, ethically and morally with what the intelligence comunity has allowed us to know, and how they’ve convinced us to allow them to act without regard to law is that they now consider you and me and everybody in the whole world the bad guys.
The TL;DR:
Spying as an activity and as a necessity of the realpolitik is not at question here.
What I question is the indiscriminate targeting and the worldview that allows this to continue without a legal and ethical framework.
