title: FBI Director James Comey: ‘Trust, but protect’ (and cover your laptop webcam with tape)
text: 21st Century Wire says NSA and police state cheerleaders will often use the flimsy defense of mass surveillance, claiming that it s  legal , and therefore, it is somehow right, and that we must  trust  the state because the U.S. is an  advance  democracy, land of the free, home of the brave (you know the drill).The truth of the matter is independent of the whims of the state (in this case, the Orwellian police state), which is this: when laws are manipulated and passed through our bicameral legislative machine and then used for oppressive and profitable ends   the very ends that so many great writers and philosophers warned us about for centuries   then those laws, along with the state s omnipotent authority  must be challenged. And how many times have we heard central government cheerleaders throw around this old trope when it comes to state surveillance: Well, if you haven t done anything wrong and you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to worry about. Presently, Washington s current liberty death spiral is in direct conflict with the fundamental principles and morals of a free society. This has caused a near complete breakdown in trust between the corporate state and the  voters. This reality seems to be lost on so many media pundits and of course, completely lost on our bureaucratic class RT: It turns out that FBI director James Comey covers his laptop camera with tape, just like any NSA-fearing citizen should   an admission that has generated hilarity on social media  