And all of this in plain sight

The idea of centralized internet has always been flawed.

WIthout some sort of meshnet, there will always be room for state actors or motivated individuals to splice into fiber cables, or lurk public wifi spots, things of that nature. If we are not in control of the transmission of our own data, the data has no intrinsic integrity beyond public-key encryption. Even with PK, there is still metadata attacks, the potential to just store huge amounts of data to be cracked later. (NSA Colorado)

The solution is to own our data, use strong-crypto, use strong anti-correlation procedures, avoid the creation of metadata, and to remain highly suspcious and aware of what our adversaries (the govt) are up to.

I once worked in a building where they hung brown paper sheets inside the bathroom stalls in case anyone jotted down something classified while moving their bowels. This paper was taken down at the end of day and stuffed into burn bags. The paranoia of those with clearances is not (or was not, this was years ago) talked about or paid any attention too, but I knew people who hardly ever spoke at all for fear of leaking secrets and have wondered how they fared later in civilian life.