Majority of Americans prefer "security" to freedom

[madfranks]

Well, this is depressing. America is done, put a fork in her.

http://www.businessinsider.com/edward-snowden-poll-traitor-hero-russia-asylum-2013-7


According to the ABC-Washington Post poll, 53% say that Snowden should be charged with a crime after exposing a trove of NSA secrets, compared with 36% who disagree. That's a sharp turn from the point immediately after his revelations in June, when Americans opposed him being charged by a 48-43 margin.

Snowden is currently in Russia, where he is reportedly being allowed to leave the Moscow airport transit zone in which he has been stationed for the past month. His lawyer said he plans to stay in Russia and attempt to start a life there — meaning the public's views of him probably won't improve.

According to the ABC-WaPo poll, 57% of Americans believe that it is more important for the NSA to "investigate possible terrorist threats, even if that intrudes on personal privacy" — the Obama administration's justification for the programs. Only 39% think it's more important for the government not to intrude on personal privacy, "even if that limits its ability to investigate possible terrorist threats."

[MNeagle]

oh come on! You can't actually believe these "Polls" are legit can you?

They're about as authentic as voting 'results'....

[Libertytree]

I'm with MN on this. I wouldn't trust that poll/propaganda fer nothin.

[madfranks]

oh come on! You can't actually believe these "Polls" are legit can you?

They're about as authentic as voting 'results'....

I dunno, my gut tells me that most people agree with what this poll shows. Most people I talk to about this don't seem to mind much if the NSA records and stores all their private info if it will help keep another 9/11 from happening.

[Sparky]

This is only depressing if there is some need to characterize America as either security-minded or freedom-minded. There's no such need.

The fact is, this is more evidence that there are two Americas. (And I don't mean North and South.) There is a clear split between the way Americans "think". Half think one way, half think the other way. Sometimes we anguish too much that people are sheep, or that they are ignorant. But only half of them are. I'm not saying 50% are fully aware, but I'm saying half are searching for awareness and have the capability to achieve it.

Sometimes I think we are too arrogant about being in the right half. We should be rallying our half, and bringing as many as possible to this awareness, because we're headed for a confrontation over resources and we want our team to be as strong as possible to elicit the best possible outcome after the dust settles.

[Jewboo]

We should be rallying our half, and bringing as many as possible to this awareness, because we're headed for a confrontation over resources and we want our team to be as strong as possible to elicit the best possible outcome after the dust settles.




http://steelotter.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/larson-sheep.jpg



"Half" is more like maybe one percent of the population in the USA.

:rolleyes:

[Hatha Sunahara]

It just proves we live in a full-blown 'democracy' where public opinion is created by the Ministry of Propaganda aka the Mainstream Media. This is what our politicians and our 1% want to export to all the rest of the world.

How do you disagree with something if the media tells you the majority believes it, even if they don't and the media is lying? Well, you just go along--and that is why our politicians could care less about public opinion--because they have the means to create it. Who in their right mind would believe that X% of the population believes that they don't need any 'rights'? One of the results of people believing the lies of the media is that most of us think the rest of us are pretty stupid. It's not true. It's a lie.



Hatha

[Ares]

Majority of "Americans" prefer "security" to freedom

Fixed the title for ya... I don't consider those who prefer security over freedom Americans to begin with.

[Ares]

I dunno, my gut tells me that most people agree with what this poll shows. Most people I talk to about this don't seem to mind much if the NSA records and stores all their private info if it will help keep another 9/11 from happening.
My gut tells me the only ones who were polled were Washington DC residents.

[Twisted Titan]

And they will get neither......

[Libertytree]

This is only depressing if there is some need to characterize America as either security-minded or freedom-minded. There's no such need.

The fact is, this is more evidence that there are two Americas. (And I don't mean North and South.) There is a clear split between the way Americans "think". Half think one way, half think the other way. Sometimes we anguish too much that people are sheep, or that they are ignorant. But only half of them are. I'm not saying 50% are fully aware, but I'm saying half are searching for awareness and have the capability to achieve it.

Sometimes I think we are too arrogant about being in the right half. We should be rallying our half, and bringing as many as possible to this awareness, because we're headed for a confrontation over resources and we want our team to be as strong as possible to elicit the best possible outcome after the dust settles.

I agree that there's a division though I'm not sure about the %'s. Plus ya have to figure in the apathetic.

[Sparky]

"Half" is more like maybe one percent of the population in the USA.


:rolleyes:

My point is that it really isn't one percent, even though we keep saying it is. It really is more like half that have the ability to "get it", even if they haven't gotten it yet. I think 1% of the people "got it" five years ago, and now 10% do. Ultimately it can be 50%. Polls show that more than half the people in the U.S. think we're off track, even if they have not yet tied together cause and effect. This is a much bigger recognition of a structural systematic problem than was observed 5 or 10 years ago. Recognizing that you have a problem is the first step.

[Libertytree]

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics...s-unjustified/ (http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/07/attitudes-shift-against-snowden-fewer-than-half-say-nsa-is-unjustified/)

From the comments.

"This article is DECEPTIVE and its conclusion is WRONG for the following simple reason which everyone can go easily SEE FOR YOURSELF on page 5/6 of the PDF in the raw data section:

Between June and July, the pollsters CHANGED THE WORDING OF THE QUESTION ABOUT CRIMINAL CHARGES!!!

In June, the question read "A former government contractor named Edward Snowden has released information to the media about a surveillance program by the U.S. National Security Agency. Do you support or oppose Snowden being charged with a crime for disclosing the NSA’s surveillance program? Do you feel that way strongly, or somewhat?"

Note the use of the word "surveillance program" twice.

In July, when there was supposedly such a huge shift of opinion against Snowden, the question now reads:

"A former government contractor named Edward Snowden has released information to the media about intelligence-gathering efforts by the U.S. National Security Agency. Do you support or oppose Snowden being charged with a crime for disclosing the NSA’s intelligence-gathering efforts? Do you feel that way strongly, or somewhat?"

Note "surveillance program" in June has been conveniently replaced with "intelligence-gathering efforts" in July.

Of course people are going to respond differently! "Surveillance program" has a bad connotation and "intelligence gathering" has a good connotation! "Surveillance" is a violation of our own rights and "intelligence" keeps us safe from enemies.

It is utterly inexcusable that ABC did not mention this CRITICAL fact in their "statistical" analysis, right up front in the MAIN ARTICLE. They only mention this wording change in an obscure, easy-to-miss asterisk in the raw data section on page 5/6 of the PDF file.

This is bad journalism at the very least. Did ABC bow to political pressure to become a propaganda arm of the government?"

[Sparky]

Good catch, LT. Wording of polls is extremely important in interpreting the results, yet wording is often neglected when results are presented by the media.