Ace:
Pew came out with some counterintuitive numbers on Americans’ beliefs about security and civil liberties– to wit, the love the former and care not a whit about the latter.
* 62% say the government should investigate terrorist threats regardless of privacy intrusion (the other option is no privacy intrusion no matter what)* 56% say that tracking millions of call records is acceptable in the effort to investigate terrorism (the other option is that tracking millions of call records no matter what is unacceptable)
* 45% say the government should be able to monitor email and online activities to prevent future terror attacks (the other option is that it is unacceptable)
These questions are a little misleading, the respondent is being forced to choose between a false dichotomy in each one. The situation we have on our hands isn’t simply the choice between MONITOR EVERYBODY and MONITOR NOBODY. We can certainly monitor people who are suspicious. Why force people to choose between pure safety and pure privacy?
By offering more granular (and realistic) options, respondents aren’t force to choose one at the exclusion of the other.
Have Pew and the WaPo learned nothing from their Magic Boyfriend, the one given to saying things like this:
“Some say that we should have full 24/7 video surveillance of every citizen at all times, including in the bathroom and the bedroom. Others say we should gladly kneel before terrorists so that they can cut our throats without having to strain themselves reaching. I reject this false choice.”
Well, CBS has done a poll with more realistic, granular answer choices, and finds that Americans reject this false choice as well, and also, aren’t quite as cool with perpetual surveillance as Obama’s Teenage FanClub would have you think. Compare the questions asked by the WaPo and CBS, respectively, and the answers each received.
