Not could. Had been and were, for which there was growing evidence culminating with the Snowden files. I don&#x27;t disagree that they had a considerably larger impact than what went before. You&#x27;re absolutely right in the sense that once the stories of GCHQ&#x27;s black boxes, the EUP&#x27;s documented disclosure of Echelon [0], room 101 and so on and so forth got outside the circle of people who were familiar with them they became FOAF stories and conspiracy theories and weren&#x27;t part of any mainstream discourse, but there was a bit more to [it] than abstract hypotheticals and general &#x27;power corrupts&#x27; cynicism.<p>[0] An Appraisal of Technologies of Political Control.
<a href="http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.europarl.europa.eu&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;jadis&#x2F;2013_12&#x2F;8.PE4_AP_PV!LIBE.1994_LIBE-199801260050EN.pdf" rel="nofollow">http:&#x2F;&#x2F;www.europarl.europa.eu&#x2F;pdf&#x2F;jadis&#x2F;2013_12&#x2F;8.PE4_AP_PV!...</a><p>[edit]