As I was signing on to Blogger to write this post, I was blocked by my web filter. This is particularly weird because I've had the web filter in place for a while now and it has never blocked me from signing onto my blog ever before. Not only that, once I had signed on to unblock the site, I had to unblock it again a couple times more before I could start typing.
I recognize that there are probably (almost certainly) blogs out there with content that I want to avoid. Having the filter be aware of that is helpful and the reason I have it. Not having it recognize the same site that I just gave permission to seems like an error on the program's part. Even so, I suppose that I would rather it be overly protective than fail to do its job at all.
In an odd way, this reminds me of Edward Snowden. He made a big move, at least in his mind, to protect Americans' privacy, doing what he thought was necessary for the greater good. The difference of course is that in leaking classified information, Snowden put a lot of people's lives at risk, while my web filter simply annoyed me for several minutes. He made a moral decision and then fled the consequences; if he really believed in what he did, he would stand trial and make his case.
Just as with my web filter, I think that most people would rather be safe and slightly annoyed than to be put in danger. Yes, freedoms our important and whenever our freedoms are threatened we the people should work hard to stop it from happening. That doesn't mean we should put other people's lives at risk or run from the consequences of our actions.
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