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Do you remember the Mail incident during Andrew Jackson's administration? You see, abolitionist mail was going through the post office and was found in South Carolina. South Carolinians, intent on keeping the slavery regime, felt that this literature was encouraging rebellion and so forth. South Carolinians had a few options to deal with this controversy. Upon asking for his advice, Andrew Jackson offered his own solution. His solution was that you distribute the mail, but you put the names of those who received abolitionist literature in the newspapers. The individuals would then have to claim the mail. Of course, that solution was perhaps a reasonable one for the Post Office in South Carolina, because it ostracized those who happened to have been in the mailing lists of northern abolitionists and everyone knew who was the Judas and could be treated more harshly. Jackson's solution didn't come to fruition, because a mob formed and burned the offending mail.
The consequences of putting the names of those who were spied upon by the NSA should not be taken lightly.
Emphasis mine.
You're of course right. Legitimate targets of intelligence gathering in the U.S. including American citizens don't need the validation or unquestionable knowledge that they're being targeted. My interest resides in if dissidents, political opponents, business owners, etc people like that are being targeted.
The latter being a problem should resonate with everyone. More people should be upset that the way intel gathering & targeting is done is generalized. Generalized warrants was one of the many reasons our ancestors rebelled against the British. (Don't infer anything other than a historical fact from me saying that.)