Do you think your civil liberties are in the toilet?

I haven’t had any reason to feel that way. Except for the extra security at the airport, nothing has changed for me or my family that I can see.

Civil liberties are something you don’t notice until it’s time to exercise them. At that point you either have them or you don’t. At this point I am not inclined to make the test.

I guess the most surprising thing to me is that people are surprised. These latest revelations are only another chapter in a long series of encroachments. This began back in the 1990s (WTC basement bombing) but the serious surveillance of all Americans began right after 9/11.

Now it is 12 years later—why are people so surprised?

We made a devil’s bargain when Bush pushed through the Patriot Act. Now we are reaping the results of that abomination.

Not too surprised. As @elbanditoroso notes the “PATRIOT Act” tore a big hole in what seemed to be some world-class civil liberties. Renewal of same by our current administration, plus the indefinite-detention-by-the-military-without-charges allowed in the NDAA recently passed makes it pretty clear things ain’t what they used to be.

CitizensUnited decision by the Supreme Court, along with widespread acts of voter-suppression show us that democracy, for natural-born persons, is no longer a value in our government.

Compared to what they have been in the past, absolutely. Compared to those enjoyed in other countries, not so much.

What I find interesting is how the people around you respond to your exercising your civil liberties. Government isn’t always the biggest enemy.

@elbanditoroso Bush may have initially pushed the Patriot Act through, but it was under Obama that it was expanded and made permanent. Both parties share the blame for that fiasco.

They’ve been seriously eroded. I agree with @elbanditoroso that many people seem to be blind to any encroachment or to why civil liberties matter and how easy it is to lose them. How convenient for my government that they ‘don’t talk about intelligence matters’ as the latest spying allegations unfold.

Drip, drip, drip…one little reasonable pragmatic government decision/action at a time…drip, drip, drip…our civil rights are being eroded…with our chicken-hearted cowardly approval…drip…

@peridot What a wise and thoughtful remark.

Yes. The Republocrats have been wearing us down for decades. As long as we elect empty suits with no moral fortitude we will descend into the abyss of a iron fisted dictatorship.