Doubleplusgood Authoritarian Duckspeak

I’m amazed at the arguments authoritarians are trotting out to defend the surveillance state. Sometimes they just call critics “anti-American,” “paranoid,” the “enemy,” and “traitors who should be hanged,” (sic) but sometimes they produce truly stunning works of duckspeak.

I don’t recall who argued that “Every government has a right to keep secrets.” I’ve already noted that this is incompatible with the liberal idea that the state exists by the consent of the governed.

But now David Brooks has announced that “For society to function well, there have to be basic levels of trust and cooperation, a respect for institutions and deference to common procedures.”

Now it seem obvious to me that, for a free society to exist, we must distrust power and distrust powerful institutions.

There’s an extended example, including the traditional hate before the duckspeakquote, here: http://discussion.guardian.co.uk/comment-permalink/24244425

See also: http://marjaerwin.livejournal.com/48649.html [The persecution of Breanna Manning and the incoherence of American Centrist ideology]