The imperial boomerang? Under the past Presidents, the US govt has acted in nefarious perhaps "unconstitutional" ways (especially when engineering regime changes or manufacturing consent for war). Now, the same freedom of action & impunity is sought by government actors in their own homeland? McCarthyism, as TFA notes, is back with a vengeance.
And indeed agencies have thrown the law book at their adversaries. To me, it seems as if is only when Trump does it, the press seems to be in an overdrive? Or perhaps, the Trump admin is boldly targetting the "untouchables"?
> the whole business has been massively obfuscated by that special blend of state secrecy and legal gaggery that characterizes an official attempt to do something we really need to know about without telling us
Such laws, often passed in the name of counter-terrorism, exist in most European countries, including ones where "digital privacy" companies are based (like Switzerland & Sweden). Curiously, when one thinks of Stasi-like surveillance, only countries like China come to mind. As such, you wouldn't use a Chinese email provider, but a Swiss one...?
All that said, the erosion of freedom is unfortunate, and voices like Bruce Scheiner's aren't impactful enough:
Despite fearful rhetoric to the contrary, terrorism is not a transcendent threat. A terrorist attack cannot possibly destroy a country’s way of life; it’s only our reaction to that attack that can do that kind of damage. The more we undermine our own laws, the more we convert our buildings into fortresses, the more we reduce the freedoms and liberties at the foundation of our societies, the more we’re doing the terrorists’ job for them.