[lordCarbonFiber]

Amusingly enough, I think a large part of why people aren't more scared are sentiments like the ones you just expressed. It is plainly not "just like the Stasi are here" and the average person can see that. By overstating the threat we de-legitimise our concerns and apathy grows (similar to the effect the DARE program had on drug use). Is the expansion of state level surveillance cause for concern? Of course it is! However, we are by no means living in a police state and saying so is an insult towards the people working very hard to effect policy to keep it that way. In short, in my opinion, we should spread less fear mongering and more political activism if we want to see change in these policies.