The more data they have the less they know. Most people with extreme voiced opinions will do nothing. Thinking doesn't mean doing and doing doesn't mean thinking.
The problem is that if you ever cross them, they have over 10 years worth of every type of your electronic communications to sift through for dirt. Not only do they have all that on you, which gives them some unknown but extremely worrisome level of insight about you, but also on all your friends and family and colleagues. And the likelihood of crossing them keeps growing.
They have finite funding and finite manpower. The hypothetical scenario in which half of America has "crossed" them, will not come to pass. When everyone is crossing them, they will be forced to triage.
The point is that you do deal with them, you just don't know about it. You also have to factor in the odds that there will be a false positive affecting you.
Your name might be on a no-fly list, even though you aren't "crossing them." There might be "100% verified" data which links you to some event, as there was with Brandon Mayfield's fingerprints, even though that connection is 100% wrong.
These are all low-probability events. Odds are, you don't have to worry. But every time you have to wait in line for security screening, remember that it's a false positive because they are worrying about you crossing them.
And that's why I have not traveled in years. You're going to harass me, I am not going to play. It's going to hurt the economy, but that's your fault, not mine.
but then you're not really free are you? free in the sense that you self-impose restrictions on travel. do you feel free? (honest question, cause your stance is intriguing)
Prosecutors in the states are known to withhold exculpatory evidence. It's not about knowing, it's not even about what you can prove, it's about what they can pin on you - what they can get people to believe about you.
"If you give me six lines written by the hand of the most honest of men, I will find something in them which will hang him."
- attributed to Richelieu, Cardinal De
That's the fear - (or a large part of it anyway.)
You don't even have to cross them for them to do it - not in any significant way. Maybe you slight a cop and he decides to screw you if he can. Maybe you're just a figure on someone's KPIs. You don't have to cross someone - not really - for your desires to conflict.
