With the PRISM program, which allows the NSA to directly, warrantlessly spy on virtually all communications on the Internet, and other NSA schemes surveilling literally every phone call made in the United States, America has struck the “right balance” between privacy and government power, according to President Barack Obama, adding that spying on the myriad details of Americans’ lives actually protects civil liberties.

Obama insisted it was impossible to have “100 percent security and also have 100 percent privacy,” adding that it was up to the government to make the choice. It seems the answer was to put the sliding scale all the way to the authoritarian side, ushering in a privacy-free era of always-on surveillance.

As the one in charge of the surveillance, Obama is naturally quick comfortable with this situation, and mocked the people who “complain about Big Brother,” a reference to the (somewhat less ambitious) surveillance system in George Orwell’s novel 1984.

Obama went on to condemn media outlets for informing the public about the PRISM scheme, insisting it was unacceptable for news sources to reveal his misdeeds “willy-nilly” and that they were aiding terrorists by informing them (along with everyone else) about just how much surveillance is going on.