I found an article by the New York Times: Software Being Developed to Monitor Opinions of U.S. ¹ via TelePolis ².
Scary!
A consortium of major universities, using Homeland Security Department money, is developing software that would let the government monitor negative opinions of the United States or its leaders in newspapers and other publications overseas.
This one is typical: “The monitoring would not extend to United States news, Mr. Kielman said.” Somehow this adds insult to injury. Just as all the wiretapping excuses. I don’t feel bound by national boundaries. I have friends and family abroad. I haven’t lived in the countries I am citizen of. And thus my stuff never protected by these kind of exceptions. And looking back, I don’t really feel that people without friends and family abroad are necessarily the group of people I’d trust to keep my country safe. On the contrary, I associate such people with nationalism and patriotism. Sentiments I do not appreciate at all.
Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all others because you were born in it. – George Bernard Shaw
Strange how I can’t find a source for this quote. Both the German and the English Wikiquotes page list it as “attributed”. ³ ⁴
#Software #USA