Propped

Every time I encounter it and no matter how many times I do, I am surprised at how much privacy and freedom Americans are willing to surrender for just a little more convenience – and at the same time scoff as exaggeration at the documented and verified depredations on their lives and freedoms caused by ubiquitous surveillance, DRM, corporate overreach and the like.

I hate to say this, but it seems almost as if they want to be oppressed, as if they wear it as some sort of badge of honor. I was reading this comment thread about Microsoft’s SkyDrive when it hit me again just how pervasive and pernicious this line of thought is. Anyone who objected to Microsoft having access to data that they should not, and then sharing it willy-nilly with the NSA, was pretty consistently downvoted.

Note that this isn’t speculation. It is documented and known that Microsoft does this – the average American just doesn’t care.

But of course this is nothing new. Americans seem more easily hoodwinked by propaganda, and this has been the case for at least a hundred years if not more. I’ve read many scholarly examinations of this but I am still not sure that I or anyone understands exactly why Americans drink and eat up propaganda like nectar and manna, while Europeans and Australians at least question it a bit.