The main difference is what they believe they're doing. I seriously doubt that most or many people at the NSA think they're in the line of "suppression of dissent".
Even though people doing the wrong things for the right reasons can cause a great deal of harm and should be stopped, it's still less of a threat than people doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. For example, I doubt anyone from the NSA would show someone footage of their girlfriend "walking into a hotel with other men" as an attempt to ruin their lives.
It's not like the US intelligence services haven't done this before. See how they treated MLK before (e.g. spying on him, accusing him of being in league with communists, leaking details of his personal life to Strom Thurmond).
>The main difference is what they believe they're doing. I seriously doubt that most or many people at the NSA think they're in the line of "suppression of dissent".
What's with all the whistleblowing then? Snowden wasn't the only one. He was just the one who released the information directly to the public (at enormous personal risk).
I think I need a citation for "...less of a threat than people doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons." Offhand, I cannot think of any societal-scale examples of anyone doing "the wrong things" for anything other than what they perceive to be the "right reasons".
For example, the Chinese internal intelligence services were likely not attempting to "ruin [anyone's] lives"; instead, they were probably trying to limit the damage a purported "human rights lawyer" could do to their society's stability. Unlike you, I have no doubt that United States (or any western) intelligence service would use similar tactics for similar perceived ends.
And if you want evidence of that, I'll just point you to the entire discussion of the justified use of torture after Sept. 11, 2001.
Even though people doing the wrong things for the right reasons can cause a great deal of harm and should be stopped, it's still less of a threat than people doing the wrong things for the wrong reasons. For example, I doubt anyone from the NSA would show someone footage of their girlfriend "walking into a hotel with other men" as an attempt to ruin their lives.