Do red-staters seriously not care about the gov't spying on them?

[Charlie Brown]

Every time I breach the subject with a conservative, I keep hearing "I have nothing to hide. If they want to listen to me on the phone, fine." (I'm not kidding). The inevitable reality that these powers will be abused and mis-used by anyone who happens to be in power is completely lost on all of them.

Every time a new abuse of the NSA is reported by the press, the most adament defenders appear to be people like Pat Roberts, Jeff Sessions, and John Cornyn (who is a former f****** lawyer). Aren't voters in Kansas, Alabama, and Texas bothered by this knee-jerk defense of everything the NSA does? Conservatives are supposed to about decreasing the size of government and its role in our lives. Why are they supporting the foundations of a police state?

I don't mean to blast red-staters in general, but, WHAT ON EARTH IS WRONG WITH THESE PEOPLE?

[yourout]

1. They would care plenty if the tables were turned.

There is no way in hell they would be happy if say......President Hillary was doing this.

[niyad]

2. apart from terminal stupidity is the profound belief that they are amoung

"the chosen" and nothing bad is going to happen to them, since they are on the winning side.

I just ask them how they would react if it were a democratic administration listening to them. like president hillary clinton.

[marylanddem]

8. I think "terminally stupid" is the operative word here...

And you know, I don't give a rat's asshole what some terminally stupid slob thinks as long as
Bush and his evil collaborators are frogmarched out of the peoples' house asap.

[tridim]

3. They care.. They're just in denial.

[neoblues]

10. Well, they're all wet.

Being in the(de) Nile(nial) an all! Plus, since they're up to their eyebrows, if they don't realize that they'd better start swimming soon, they'll drown us all.

[serryjw]

4. They don't care

I've had the same experience while talking to people when petitioning. They assume the government is listening as could care less

[libnnc]

5. Maybe framed correctly they'd finally get riled up.

"Hey, the gub'ment knows where you live and who you talk too. That means they can find you and take away yer guns!"

[Occulus]

19. Try this phrasing:

"Do you seriously not have a problem with this governemnt knowing where you buy your guns, and approximately what time you buy them?

They can get that from your calling patterns, you know."

[libnnc]

20. that's a winner

[C_U_L8R]

Ask them if it's okay

if Hillary Clinton goes through their phone records

(see freep-head go pop)

[LiberalPartisan]

6. "I have nothing to hide" - is the lazy man's argument

In fact it is no arugument at all - it is a complete cop-out proferred by those too intellectually lazy, or more probably intellecutally incapable, to try to comprehend the insidious violation illegal domestic spying represents.

That I may not be hiding anything is irrelevant. What is relevant is my neighbor may have nothing to hide but somebody thinks they do. A violation of my neighbor's rights is a violation of my rights. THAT is what these mouthbreathers refuse to understand.

[SeattleGirl]

7. I like the response that DUer Minnesota Libra uses:

As a matter of fact I do have something to hide: my privacy!

Love it!

[Aristus]

9. Keep in mind, most of these people are just one cup of Kool-Aid away

from Jonestown. They have invested so much time, effort, emotion and belief into the idiotic notion that Bush is some kind of wonderful (you know, strong, virtuous, decisive, etc, etc) that to admit at long last how blindered they've been, is to risk madness.

They've got to keep the fiction going in their heads or admit they were wrong about him. One common characteristic of the Deliverance wing of the Republican party is to never, NEVER admit you are wrong.

Ever.

[C_U_L8R]

11. Oh don't tease

the idea of freeps rapturing themselves
like lemmings running off a cliff
is just too heartwarming to imagine

[rwheeler31]

12. How do their kids feel abouut this?

Good God if you tell Dot about that I will just die.

[Ringo84]

13. Re:

Not to be insulting - especially after that post about not hating people because they're Republican/Conservative - but that is a stupid point of view.

Just because you supposedly don't have anything to hide doesn't mean that the government has the right to stick its nose in your personal records. DUH.

How much longer are people going to rationalize like this before they realize that they're being screwed?

It should be painfully obvious: vote Democrat.
Ringo

[niyad]

14. welcome to DU--unfortunately, it is an extremely common point of view-

during the 70's, when the feds were busy checking our mail, the idiot in charge publicly stated that if we had nothing to hide, we should have no objections to them rifling our mail.

Quite a number of us were having our mail gone through, blatantly, because of our political activities. I finally had enough, called the postmaster and said if it didn't stop, the local tv ombudsperson would be seeing our destroyed mail. they got a lot better about covering up what they were doing.

[Ringo84]

18. Re:

Thanks.

I can't believe that they're allowed to get away with it.
Ringo

[SaveElmer]

15. Don't know where you are from...

But I would venture that the reaction you would get would be different in different states...SOmce red-states are dominate dby cultural and religious conservatives, some by more libertarian - "get the gov off my back" conservatives. Gauge reaction in say Montana or Nevada and the reaction may be totally different.

[Patsy Stone]

17. One of the worst aspects of the whole thing

whether international, domestic, Google, whatever searches, is that this administration has proven the separatists and militia/cult/unabomber loonies RIGHT in their beliefs that they were already being spied on by the government. Oy.

[Marr]

16. They don't think *their* rights are being trampled. Just yours.

And no, they don't care about *your* rights. Not one bit.

[rucky]

21. Just tell 'em the NSA wants to take away their guns.

If they're not criminals, they shouldn't be worried about being gunless, right?