Some government sympathizers scold the more sensible among us for not wanting government snoops poking around in our private matters by saying "If you are doing nothing wrong, why do you care?" or by proclaiming "I have nothing to hide!"
Fine. Then let me come to your house and look through your underwear drawer, medicine cabinet, computer files, and under your mattress. After all, if you have nothing to hide, why would you care?
Or do your doors open only for those who can kill you if you refuse? Why does it matter?
Think about it.
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Judge Andrew Napolitano said it well in an interview with Alex Jones:
ReplyDelete"The neo cons have persuaded vast majority (sic) of segments of the country, the media included, that if you have nothing to hide, you have nothing to fear. So whenever I get into an argument like this, and somebody looks at me and says “what do you have to hide?” And I say: “Everything. I have my dignity to hide, I have my personality to hide I have my privacy to hide. You want me to entrust those things to the government? lets see, the government can't deliver the mail, it can't fill potholes, it doesn't know who's paid taxes and who hasn't, it can't secure the borders, why would you trust a government, who can't do the basic things we hire it for, with personal, private information about you?” Ultimately, after the right to live, the greatest of rights is the right to be left alone. That's why we have a fourth amendment, so that, when it is honoured, the government will be forced to leave us alone."
That's a good argument against the snoops.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like to do when this phrase comes up is turn the whole argument on its head: "if the state should have access to my personal information, then I think I should get to know all of its activities; after all if they have nothing to hide, they've got nothing to worry about."
ReplyDeleteFunny how the neocons squirm at the notion of government transparency, but are completely oblvious to basic civil liberties.