I don't know where they got that idea from, he's succeeded in making everyone more uncomfortable using modern communications infrastructure, and the solutions are not yet convincing enough to get back the privacy everyone thought they had.
Snowden made everyone's communications seem more important than they actually are, and his methods were entirely non-violent. The dubious honor of constant surveillance is not only awarded to technical specialists, public figures, and the wealthy, but also to Blogger Bob and Opinionated Alice. You just need to type or say any of these words in any context:
[... ...]
Yes, saying "Bubba the Love Sponge" will get your post flagged for domestic terrorism.
That's quite a list (I don't even know what over half of it means. How does saying "football" qualify? Some kind of domestic militia codeword!?)
From looking at the developments in places like Greece, Brazil and Ukraine in the last 12 months, I wouldn't be surprised if "rioters" and "extremist political activists" becomes the reason given that everyone's communications get monitored, whether they use "listed" words/expressions or not.
Which is another way of saying that we're likely under those conditions already. Would anyone actually believe it if the NSA annnounced: "all domestic surveillance of all types is now switched off, it was morally wrong after all. Sorry about that everybody"?
