[arkem]

I am comparing the official missions of the Stasi and NSA which are significantly different.

If your argument is that the NSA is not acting in accordance to its mission, or that abuses are taking place, or that the NSA is acting like the Stasi that's something else entirely, completely separate to what I'm discussing.

I'm pointing out that these are different agencies with different roles and responsibilities, and trying to draw parallels between an NSA data center and a Stasi archive is not really useful.

[straight_talk]

>> that's something else entirely, completely separate to what I'm discussing.

Aha I see. The NSA and Stasi are collecting vast amounts of data on everybody living in their countries. Data that was and will be abused to ruin innocent lives. But you prefer to discuss in this topic something "entirely, completely separate".

[arkem]

This is a discussion on an article that compares an NSA data center to the Stasi archives. I chose to discuss how I find that comparison fallacious.

I am arguing that the NSA is not like the Stasi. They had different goals, different authorization, and different modus operandi. You're arguing that the NSA is bad (because they are like the Stasi). Whether the NSA is bad or not is orthogonal to my discussion.

To directly answer your reply:

1. The Stasi doesn't collect vast amounts of anything any more.

2. Has the NSA used data to ruin innocent lives? Have you any evidence that they will do so in the future?