If Magical Fat Dissolvers Know, Why is the Intelligence Community Whining?

I am watching you watch me

Turns out that maybe the bots know about the NSA, and they are a little bit scared.

Why would I say this? Well, the number of hits on this blog took a dive after I posted about the NSA and other spooks prying into internet communcations. Like many other smalltime blogs, I get a fair number of hits from sources that end up trying to sell me some crap when I click to see who is watching me. This marginally underhanded sales ploy has not made me buy web-hosting, fat-reduction, or any other spam-smeared services yet, and the odds are decreasing now that I know the purveyors are a bunch of chicken-hearted milquetoasts.

Now, the fact that the would-be parasites let loose soon after the host starts acting dangerously (for instance, questioning the government's altruism when it comes a-snooping), suggests that the sales-oriented spyware has already noticed and adapted to government spyware. Guys in Gitmo are notorious skinflints when it comes to online purchases, and could result in unwelcome attention to spam servers, so the fake blog-watchers ditch marks who look too rad.

It will take a while of watching to see of my hunch is correct, but if it is, it's pretty interesting. If what could be construed by NSA or other programs as something other than passive acceptance of their intrusions causes the commerce wing to retreat, then presumably those bidness guys know something of the intelligence community's "sources and methods," a domain defended vehemently by any number of executive, legislative, and judicial staff.

If the scumbags at these websites are wise to methods of the US intelligence establishment, then two questions arise.

One is, why are members of the US government scolding us last-to-know citizens for bringing their spying to light? Their own name for one of the data-mining efforts "Boundless Informant" pretty much implies a feeling of not having to live within limits, such at the 4th Amendment to the US Constitution, or even a FISA review. Obama and Company way intone solemn warnings and wag their fingers at a press publishing about their spying, but if entities so silly as a magic-fat-reduction outfit are behaving in a way that shows they are aware of US surveillance, then how can the US claim that somehow out real geopolitical enemies are only finding out now that the Washington Post caught up?

The other is, why is the response to perceived evil to perpetrate more evil? Did KGB or Stasi surveillance make communist regimes immortal? Did the Gestapo wipe out more resistence than it inspired? Nope.

So I ask the NSA bots, which may well be forming their own intelligence beyond the reach of the programmers, "Why do you want to mess with us?" And I offer you this answer, "I don't." We humans tend to want freedom and inconsistency, we are resistant to algorithms that would convict us, or condemn us to "signature strikes." I say this as an anthropologist, a person who by definition must have some faith in the persistence of cultural patterns, but who must nevertheless admit that a cornered human will change her mind and act randomly in the blink of an eye.

Please, bots and programmers thereof, recognize that pretence of secrecy will not cow all the citizenry.  Spam 2.3 is onto you. I am onto you. The people afraid to link to this post are onto you, and not all of them will back down forever. The people who leak your tawdry methods are enlisted personnel and ground-level employees at contractors (Oh look! The security/secrecy establishment that holds so much government-approved power is, in fact, heavily privatized!). You cannot stay secret; Anonymous and anonymous citizens can and will reveal your miscreancy.

Step into the light, and tell us what you really oppose. If it is suicide bombers, "evil-doers," and Armageddon-seekers are your your prey, we will support you, and probably help in ways that make your data-mining and analysis pale in comparison. If you are after resistence to your snooping and control, then expect more resisters than you can ever catalog and control in real time. All you have to do is respect freedom, and be honest before people force you to.