When news of comprehensive and potentially unconstitutional surveillance by the US National Security Agency (NSA) first broke some weeks back, by and large, the general public seemed to be hearing about its work for the first time. Many were shocked. And then came a distasteful backlash against that shock by a bunch of know-it-all geeks.
“Oh, you didn’t know that? Of course the NSA does surveillance. They’ve done it for years,” was the typical put-down.
Get over yourselves, guys. (It’s a safe bet that almost everyone with this arrogant attitude is male.) That’s not geek culture. That’s just being an a-hole.
“A true geek would never be smug that THEY knew about NSA and mock those being shocked. A true geek would be glad people are learning stuff,” I tweeted on 12 June. I stand by that comment today.
SOURCE: zdnet.com
