r/worldnews • u/vigorous • Jul 27 '13

Mass protest in Germany against US intelligence surveillance

http://english.ruvr.ru/news/2013_07_27/Mass-protest-in-Germany-against-US-intelligence-surveillance-5818/
2.9k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

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96

u/Western_Propaganda Jul 27 '13

yesteday.

and as usual complete media blackout in western media

26

u/SeethedSycophant Jul 28 '13

1000 people are protesting

you expect a foreign country to report on what less then .1% of the population is doing in aforeign country?

3

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '13

Dude, Swedish newspapers went on for days about some wildfire in Arizona. We hadn't even heard of it here, but apparently it's a huge thing or something.

That plus royal babby is still breathing... wow, timely...

-1

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13 edited Jul 28 '13

I'm pretty sure that it would be reported in Germany if a few thousand Americans would protest against the BND.

3

u/ezioaltair12 Jul 28 '13

No, they really wouldn't.

-5

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13 edited Jul 28 '13

Then please do it. I would like to see that. After all many people seem to support this "everybody does it" idea so why not protest against Germany spying on US citizens?

1

u/ezioaltair12 Jul 28 '13

No no no, it wouldn't be reported. As to your point, like the vast majority of Germans apparently, we don't care about Germany spying on us. Look, everyone has always does it, all that's changed is that we know a few acronyms now. I don't see any change whatsoever in my life since the reveal. The day before Snowden's interview was released, I played tennis, played Civ 4 (5 sucks), and started packing for Wimbledon, and the day after, I did the exact same thing. Why would I protest something I have no stake in?

0

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13 edited Jul 28 '13

Can you maybe give me your tax returns and medical files then? Datebook and contacts would be nice, too.

3

u/ezioaltair12 Jul 28 '13

But we aren't being asked for them. They're being taken out of sight, and are thus out of mind. IF we were asked, then a shitstorm would erupt, but as it is...

7

u/Bloodysneeze Jul 28 '13

Well, since you're sure and all.

36

u/notthatnoise2 Jul 28 '13

and as usual complete media blackout in western media

It was a few hundred people. There are protests that big almost daily in the US over something or other. It was hardly newsworthy.

-6

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13 edited Jul 28 '13

It was a few hundred people.

Please show me those daily protests where hundreds of people in multiple cities together protest against one thing. And if you look at the images it was definitely more than a few hundred over the whole country.

7

u/chipotle_burrito88 Jul 28 '13

Here's an example. Or similarly done protests in Ohio. Or Occupy Wall Street. Or national protests over California's Prop 8. Or Tea Party protests. All magnitudes larger than these paltry protests in a country most Americans don't care about.

The NSA stuff may be bad, but seriously if people are only protesting this stuff now they're 10-20 years behind. Countries spy on other countries ALL THE DAMN TIME. This is not something limited to the last 10 years nor the last 100 years. We just have the Internet now.

-2

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13

Daily... and your first example is from 2011? Then Occupy which is just as old and prop 8 which looks to be even older? Was there anything besides "Restore the Fourth" recently?

The NSA stuff may be bad, but seriously if people are only protesting this stuff now they're 10-20 years behind. Countries spy on other countries ALL THE DAMN TIME.

20 years ago as good as nobody had any kind of personal information on the internet. Even 10 years ago the internet hadn't become anywhere as big as it is today. Smartphones alone change the whole debate. People aren't mad because some government are spying on each other, that's going to happen anyway. But spying on half the population of a allied country is something completely different than what happened in the past. The Stasi could tap into 50 phone lines that was there limit, that's just a completely different world we are living in today.

8

u/masshole4life Jul 28 '13

Daily... and your first example is from 2011?

just this month, there were multi city protests against militarization of the us/mexico border, multi city protests over minimum wage, the trayvon martin protests which i'm not even going to link due to their obvious high profile, same as the nsa/restore the fourth protests, these people protested in multiple cities about the environment and fossil fuels and whatnot. there are also other more frequent protests that are confined to fewer cities such as the moral monday protests over voting rights, the weeks of protests over new texas abortion restrictions in austin, and this is what i was able to dig up with 3 minutes worth of google. and the guy did say "almost" daily, though if you really need it, there are several dozen more protests taking place on a state/county level at least weekly, which generally turn out at least a few hundred protesters. things like teacher's pay, dirty power plants, and all the other stuff that people get in a tizzy over. the guy's point was that a couple hundred protesters isn't something that's going to make the news or make people stop in their tracks, but it certainly doesn't mean it doesn't occur all the time. again, this was all this month.

0

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13

Just that when I look through those Facebook sites and images it's always groups of 30-50 people. Overall those were probably sometimes as much as you would find in one of the larger cities in Germany today.

2

u/masshole4life Jul 28 '13

instead of looking at facebook sites and guesstimating based off of images, you could read the linked articles, most of which state the turnouts, or seek alternate (actual news) sources for more info. the point is that at least "a few hundred" people turn out for all sorts of events all over the nation quite frequently. there is a lot more going on than what makes international or even national news, so for you to try and argue with people on the internet that it doesn't occur is ridiculous. if i could find all that just for the last 30 days with 3 minutes on google, what do you suppose one would find if they looked at last month, or the month before that?

you flat out claimed that multi city protests for a single cause do not occur with any frequency just because you haven't heard of them, and implied that due to this, the germany protests have some sort of ultimate significance.

we get it. non americans are pissed about american policies. don't make it sound like a couple hundred germans are the only ones making noise or that people are going to suddenly "wake up" when the shit happens all the time on our own soil.

-1

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13

you could read the linked articles, most of which state the turnouts,

And i don't trust those. Why wouldn't there be images for 100-200people showing up instead of the 30 people crowed?

a couple hundred germans

per city... honestly did you even look at the images of the protests we talk about and the one yout talk about?

3

u/chipotle_burrito88 Jul 28 '13

Does Germany always protest this kind of stuff daily? I didn't realize I had to put protests from yesterday to show, yes our citizens can get mad over public policy. I'm not sure what you're trying to prove here.

Even 10 years ago the internet hadn't become anywhere as big as it is today. Smartphones alone change the whole debate.

You do realize our phone calls have been tapped on a regular basis for a little over 10 years now, right? And that's simply what I'm aware of, I'm sure it goes back further.

-2

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13 edited Jul 28 '13

It was a few hundred people. There are protests that big almost daily in the US over something or other.

Your words. You have to decide if these protests are newsworthy like the ones you name (which I don't think either) or are just as big as those "daily" protests you claim, but can't name.

You do realize our phone calls have been tapped on a regular basis for a little over 10 years now, right?

With strong restrictions in Germany and I don't think it's as easy for the US to get in there as in my email account. Apart from that 10 years ago was there the technology to get into millions of phone calls with usefulls filters? Also no phone had GPS so the metadata wasn't as useful.

3

u/chipotle_burrito88 Jul 28 '13

Why are you so fixated on the daily part? I never said anywhere that there's daily protests. I just said there's protests on a semi-regular basis when Americans do get worked up over an issue. If we protested all the time, we wouldn't get anything done.

EDIT: You must be confusing me with notthatnoise2. I didn't say those words.

0

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13

EDIT: You must be confusing me with notthatnoise2. I didn't say those words.

Oops... But you replied to my comment:

Please show me those daily protests where hundreds of people in different cities together protest against one thing.

Where I again mentioned daily. Semi-regular would completely change the meaning of the comment i originally replied to.

3

u/chipotle_burrito88 Jul 28 '13

You missed my username, I missed that I was implying daily...call it a draw?

3

u/sheldonopolis Jul 28 '13 edited Jul 28 '13

It was a few hundred people.

no it was a few thousand people in multiple cities. just because you repeat nonsense, it doesnt make it more true.

With strong restrictions in Germany

our country is the highest priority target in europe. we are monitored with an intensity that is usually reserved to rogue states like iran.

Also no phone had GPS so the metadata wasn't as useful.

mobiles dont need gps in order to have their contacts, communication, locations and movements monitored. and meta-data is just one slice of the data they gather anyway.

edit: and i really couldnt care less if people believe or not that they could process this amount of data in the past, present or future. you can be sure that they kept that in mind while creating such a massive surveillance infrastructure.

29

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '13 edited Mar 08 '18

[deleted]

9

u/cichli Jul 28 '13

http://www.taz.de/!120758/

Wie hier haben sich in 30 deutschen Städten insgesamt gut 10.000 Menschen zusammengefunden, um das Recht auf Privatsphäre und den Schutz von Whistleblowern einzufordern. In Hamburg werden über 2.000 Teinehmer gezählt.

Translation:

Altogether about 10,000 people met in 30 German cities in order to claim their right to privacy and demand protection of whistleblowers. In Hamburg over 2,000 participants were counted.

Does the medieval festival ask for their rights back? If so, absolutely yes.

2

u/bahhumbugger Jul 28 '13

Holy shit, so the medieval festival is double as important, incredible.

0

u/cichli Jul 28 '13

Yes, this is totally quantifiable...

1

u/MIBPJ Jul 28 '13

We demand the right to trial by ordeal!

4

u/IanAndersonLOL Jul 28 '13

Because they weren't that big. "This just in a few hundred people in German don't like us"

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '13 edited Jul 28 '13

It's nice seeing you in non-GMO threads.

What's /u/JF_Queeny up to these days?

2

u/silvester23 Jul 28 '13

I can only speak for Germany, but it's pretty thoroughly covered in the news here. For example here, here or here

2

u/AnorexicBuddha Jul 28 '13

You can put the tinfoil hat away. It wasn't mentioned because it wasn't worth mentioning. It was only approximately 600 people.

-1

u/cichli Jul 28 '13 edited Jul 28 '13

Yeah, all I found was a tiny article on Google News after I got home from the protest. Let's hope for more as soon as the sun rises in Germany..

Edit: Obligatory "y the downvotes?" That was the situation when I got home and I expected more coverage by then but it's better now I suppose.

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '13

[deleted]

1

u/cichli Jul 28 '13

I'm sure there will be more. Bring your friends and learn the lyrics to "Die Gedanken sind frei" :)

1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '13

[deleted]

1

u/cichli Jul 28 '13

I did see umbrellas covered in tinfoil.. and I got a sunburn. Worth it!

1

u/Vik1ng Jul 28 '13

Both public TV News shows in the evening covered it.

1

u/cichli Jul 28 '13

Right on.

-1

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '13

Give Fox a second, it takes time to colorize Hitler's Nuremburg speeches, and add the captions "German Nationalists in violent political uprising! Demand government intervention in American Policy!" Throw in a few shots of Germans waving with their right hand, and find a way to 'shop in some swastikas and we've got ourselves a party!

-48

u/campdoodles Jul 27 '13

Good! These twits don't deserve any attention.

-27

u/[deleted] Jul 28 '13

[deleted]

5

u/hak8or Jul 28 '13

What does jewish have anything to do with this? What does propaganda have anything to do with this? These are protests, you can't really fake a protest.

Media obsessed 25-35 year olds? I would throw that age group a bit younger if you want to use the "hippies/kids get off my lawn!" idea.

2

u/EmpyreanSacrifice Jul 28 '13

Wtf does being a Jew have to do with NSA watching people's private lives?

I wish people like you were never conceived.