"Maybe he thinks pretty much all governments have been trying to spy on everyone they can for some time now and none of them have so far perceived significant legal, political, economic, or moral deterrents in doing so."
I think that's it. Clearly enough to eject drink from nose
to suggest that something that is essentially a secret activity
will be stopped merely because the US doesn't do it anymore.
Will point out though that in reverse maybe not as true.
In other words it's quite possible that something that you perceive someone as doing
that you hadn't thought of then becomes something that you contemplate.
Let's take an example.
Red light cameras. You see it done in one city and so
you say "hey we can do red light cameras".
A bit later another city (say NYC) decides to remove red light
cameras (assuming they have them I'm using NYC as "well known and large"
for the purposes of this example). Doesn't mean other cities will
stop (once the cat is out of the bag or the genie out of the bottle etc.)
I think that's it. Clearly enough to eject drink from nose to suggest that something that is essentially a secret activity will be stopped merely because the US doesn't do it anymore.
Will point out though that in reverse maybe not as true.
In other words it's quite possible that something that you perceive someone as doing that you hadn't thought of then becomes something that you contemplate.
Let's take an example.
Red light cameras. You see it done in one city and so you say "hey we can do red light cameras".
A bit later another city (say NYC) decides to remove red light cameras (assuming they have them I'm using NYC as "well known and large" for the purposes of this example). Doesn't mean other cities will stop (once the cat is out of the bag or the genie out of the bottle etc.)