It’s actually an acronym: The USA PATRIOT Act which stands for “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism”

But I like to call it The U SAP AT RIOT Act

I was a rightwing edge lord kid at the time, the names for things under GWB (specifically The Patriot Act and Homeland Security) made me pause for the first time. It was a real "are we the baddies?" moment for me as I drew all the lines to dictatorships in history

Obama had opportunities to push things in the right direction but instead enabled (by not abolishing or by actively renewing legislation) a lot of what we’re seeing.

This is fine, the government wouldn’t ever use this in a bad way

What if the government is no longer benevolent? What if a cabal of activists takes over the executive branch?

That’ll never happen