Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald delivered a memorable and hard-hitting speech at the University of Utah in April 2015 titled “Edward Snowden and the Secrets of the National Security State.” His remarks focused on the National Security Agency’s collection of ordinary law-abiding U.S. citizens’ communications. He emphasized that, even then, nearly eight years ago, people had ceded too much of their independence to unaccountable bureaucrats without even realizing it. If that trend continued, he argued, America would soon be closer to a totalitarian state than a democracy.

He was right.