" sheer magnitude and speed of the change, from an America that sought to define itself by a calculated and performative respect for dissent to a security state whose militarized police demand obedience, drawing their guns and issuing the order for total submission now heard in every city: “Stop resisting.” This is why whenever I try to understand how the last two decades happened, I return to that September—to that ground-zero day and its immediate aftermath. "

― Edward Snowden , Permanent Record