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by leto_ii 1815 days ago
> The bad news is they're evil

Agreed, but this is really bad news, given the amount of power three letter agencies (and the deep state in general) have.

> the good news is they're incompetent

Here I disagree. I think the NSA are about as competent as such an agency is ever likely to get. We shouldn't be happy that they still have weaknesses, rather we should be horrified at how few of them there are.

Most of the spying programs had been in place years before Snowden blew the whistle. Countless other contractors and deep state employees could have done what Snowden did had they had either the courage or the moral clarity. Quite possibly many tried and were stopped before leaking to the public.