I'm attempting to find the perfect way to word the NSA story to win over the deniers...

[struggle4progress]

8. OK. Here's my advice. Discussions of this sort typically polarize in predictable ways,

after which the battle-lines are drawn and no one is willing to shift position

So don't argue along the lines of standard dichotomies provided by the corporate media, because that's almost always a recipe for stale-mate discussion and a default win by the status quo

It's important, when thinking about this, to understand where the public actually is -- and they're actually in a state of confusion, needing clarity. Large numbers of people have no idea who Snowden is, few think he's a traitor, many think he's a whistle-blower, but large numbers believe he should be prosecuted. Similarly, most people think the NSA has inadequate oversight and has gone too far -- and yet most people support the program anyway!

To win, one needs to provide that clarity with an accurate fact-based analysis, that simultaneously informs people and forces them to think about the issues in new ways. By "accurate fact-based," I mean that the analysis is built on solid facts that can be proved and that it avoids comments that can easily be dismissed as pure opinion. Abandoning fact for opinion merely invites shouting -- and making claims, that one cannot prove, courts PR disaster and loss of credibility

So get your facts right: know the history, know what can be proved, and know what you can't prove. You can effectively use your concerns about possibilities that worry you, provided you raise such issues as precise unanswered QUESTIONS that you convince people MUST be answered

And it's necessary to keep your PoV short and clean and targeted: discussions can be derailed in a thousand ways; if you gaffe in front of the press, it won't matter if you otherwise gave a brilliant fifteen minute speech -- you should expect that your gaffe will be the evening news

But to win, there is another important component: you MUST know WHAT you want to happen -- and it needs to be SPECIFIC, it needs to be DOABLE, and it needs to be RELATED to your analysis. It's irresponsible just to get people angry, or just to make people feel uncomfortable and insecure, without giving them somewhere to go and something to do, because in the end that merely produces the despair and helplessness and burn-out and inaction -- in which case, nothing really happens and the status quo wins again

Here's a tiny example: "Did you know that under current law the government doesn't need a warrant to read your emails, if they're over six months old? Why should the government be able to do that? And what are they doing with it? We should change that law. Call Senator X! Call Congressman Y!"

Another important point is that you don't actually know what people on the street are thinking, unless you converse with them. You won't know what arguments convince them unless you pay attention to what they say and to how they react to what you say

There are actually multiple issues here, and it's difficult to put them all together in a single package. I see real potential in discussing the risks associated with privatization of "national security" but I wouldn't feel bad pointing to Snowden as part of the problem. YMMV. If (say) you want to go after the FISA warrants, and the possibility that NSA is mass-collecting phone data, then learn everything you can about the associated history, the current state of the law, and the real potential for abuse -- and come up with a very specific CHANGE you want

Here's another tiny example: "Did you know that under current law the government doesn't need a warrant to collect your phone records? Or that the secret FISA court seems to be authorizing the mass-collection of Americans' phone records? What will prevent future Presidents from abusing this such information to harass political opponents? Surely the Supreme Court in the 1960s didn't intend to allow mass-collection of phone records! The FISA Courts were originally intended to avoid the Executive over-reach of the Nixon era! How did we get here? Congress needs to limit the scope of FISA warrants! &c&c"

To win: know your stuff; break the issue into bite-size pieces; avoid philosophy and keep the discussion concrete and factual; and know what you're asking people to do