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Comment by btbuildem | Hacker News Reader

You forgot the part that as an individual I am practically invisible to the institution, and it would take a mob of mes to attract Sauron's eye.

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You think that, until one day you wake up to the pounding of the FBI (or CSIS...) on your door at 6am. I thought I was a no one, I literally used the same Lotr metaphor as you, but in 2009/2010 during the occupy and wikileaks protests the US government must have decided I was enough (despite never going to a protest and commiting no crimes) and they raided me and ruined my life. I was never charged with a crime. Never even indicted. Their action was simply to ruin my life and scare me.

It can happen to you too. Even if you think you're a no one.

You don’t have to have committed a crime to be suspected of one. Investigation alone can be damaging enough depending on circumstances.

And how did you attract their attention?

In a digital world, the Eye of Sauron is multi-threaded.

(your statement isn't true when it comes to virtual + automated surveillance)

My dagger is multi threaded too.

It’s also smaller than a gnat’s tooth in terms of practical power against them.

Yes, the error in the metaphor is that the eye of sauron was one eye.

Automated surveillance is millions of eyes that track, record, and calculate a billion times faster than the human eye.

And it saves all observations forever for future review and analysis.

Do you mean to suggest that if you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear?

No, what I am suggesting is that as an "individual contributor" you're unlikely to merit an outlay of resources to do anything about your antics until your actions are somehow significant.

Unlikely implies non zero risk.

Additionally, you’re making the fair strong assumption that the state has to expend more than a nominal amount of resources to crush you, when is it becoming easier and easier to do so without significant effort.

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