The great Chinese spy balloon incident ended with a U.S. fighter jet shooting it down off the South Carolina coast.
Was this the grave national threat, insult to our sovereign airspace, whatever that the political class made it out to be? Not really. There have been other such balloons in recent years. As those incidents didn’t generate nearly the same amount of preening and braying, it’s safe to assume the most recent event was little more than theater.
Bad theater. On the level of a slow-motion police chase.
And let’s be honest about surveillance and spying, both foreign and domestic. It’s happening all the time, in more places and with greater precision than ever before. And it’s not just governments. It’s neighbors spying on neighbors. Parents spying on kids. Employers spying on employees.
And of course, there’s the very personal information millions of people are eager to share with just about anyone. SNL’s Bowen Yang captured this behavior perfectly:
It’s always shoot the balloon and never unplug Alexa,” he scoffs. “If you care so much about your data, why do you all keep your bank passwords in the Notes app? You mail your literal DNA to a company to find out if you’re like 10 percent French…”
The balloon may be gone. But surveillance in general? It’s everywhere and getting worse.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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Just shoot ’em ALL down!