Since Edward Snowden disclosed top secret files on government surveillance in 2013, hacking and leaks regarding government institutions has become all but common. Julian Assange's Wikileaks has grown substantially in size and reach, releasing documents hacked from the Democratic National Committee that haunted the 2016 presidential election. These leaks have tested public trust of the government and those who hold power within it.

With the recent "Vault 7" leaks regarding the CIA's hacking capabilities, we stand at the next apex of questioning that trust. Hailed as "the largest publication of confidential documents on the agency," jeers have once again risen from the masses about how evil the government inherently is. Whether or not you subscribe to that idea is up to you and how you perceive the information you've gathered from the leak. Personally, news of increasing online surveillance from the government has never bothered me. I've kind of always assumed it was happening, and as long as records of everyone's online activities remains undisclosed, I don't see an issue with it. Perhaps I'm just missing some integral part of the brain that cares about privacy.

Perhaps this is nemesis for a society that puts cameras in its televisions?

When leaks happen, I parse through the documents and summarizations and try to get the basic gist of what's going on. Then on comes the week or so of people calling each other 'sheeple' over whose tin foil hat was on first, and we get wonderful news stories like this (Ironically from an authoritarian state media outlet). When this cycle repeats, InfoWars' slogan is what comes to mind for me:

I guess even I can agree with Alex Jones when it comes to slogans.

In the chaos of the leaks, people seem to adopt the notion that WikiLeaks is some infallible source of information with no agenda. Even if this was true, you'd have to assume the same of the source giving the information to WikiLeaks to put out. Any coincidence that the leaks from the DNC are plentiful, but the RNC appears squeaky clean even though the Republican establishment collectively hissed as an anti-establishment candidate scorched his way through the primary elections? Context is very important when it comes to government documents, and yes, we can judge what we view as acceptable and not acceptable under federal jurisdiction, but we can never assume to have the full context. Ever. Not when WikiLeaks releases something, not when a FOIA request gets something released, not when anyone releases anything.

So unless you're talking about the band that produced the hit song "Take On Me," avoid saying "Aha."