> When the FUCK did we become a nation that starts shutting things down that don't comply with the government?

This is not new. When a company doesn't comply with fire code, the business is shut down. When a company doesn't comply with law enforcement, it's shut down. This is the case when the law is just or not (until the courts rule it unjust, best case.)

But to your actual point: we've been a nation that enslaved an entire race, locked up another one because of war, genocided yet another, banned speech against the government, ruined careers of famous scientists and actors because of political affiliations, passed laws against sex acts, shot water cannons and unleashed dogs at protesters, shot others, tore up the shanty towns of veterans, trained our soldiers to be racist so they'd be more effective, classified encryption as munitions, and on and on and on and on.

This NSA crap is infuriating, but pretending that we've suddenly turned into Nazi Germany (and conveniently ignoring our history, such as J. Edgar Hoover,) turns a complete blind eye to the fact that we've dealt with this before. We need to tell our representatives that this is not okay -- not hyperbolize it.

Also, and most importantly, quoting things from the Holocaust is absolutely disrespectful to the survivors of the Holocaust and the millions who died. Not only is that poem diluted by it being towed out whenever a government does something that someone doesn't like, but your argument is better served by coming up with something original.

> But to your actual point: we've been a nation that enslaved an entire race, locked up another one because of war, genocided yet another, banned speech against the government, ruined careers of famous scientists and actors because of political affiliations, passed laws against sex acts, shot water cannons and unleashed dogs at protesters, shot others, tore up the shanty towns of veterans, trained our soldiers to be racist so they'd be more effective, classified encryption as munitions, and on and on and on and on.

Yes, and police in US has historically acted to protect the regime and not the citizens regardless of whether the citizen actions were justified and lawful or not. Environmentalists have been dealing with this for decades[1], so it's not something new and probably not getting worse: internet activists' homes could as well have been raided, family members handcuffed and their eyes pepper-sprayed. This is fairly common, unfortunately. The question is what do we do about it?

[1] See the "If a tree falls" documentary for an excellent example.