> The only safe place today for a whistleblower is China or Russia.
Only if you are not blowing the whistle against those regimes. If you're a whistleblower in China or Russia the safest place for you is probably over here.
Yes. It was really different.
The government had some restraint in the past about spying on their own citizens. McCarthy and McCarthyism ended up universally condemned, the press felt it was their duty to bring things like watergate to light. Anti war activists could trust the press and courts of law.
Things changed a lot
>Anti war activists could trust the press and courts of law.
Maybe they could trust these, but the government really didn't have much restraint on spying in that period, like COINTELPRO program. When documents were stolen from Media FBI office in 1971, they found documents saying FBI was aiming to "get the point across there is an FBI agent behind every mailbox" to activists.
Only if you are not blowing the whistle against those regimes. If you're a whistleblower in China or Russia the safest place for you is probably over here.
Has it ever been different?