Americans really are stupid. We never should have rebelled against the crown back in the 18th Century. We have demonstated that most of us do not want our rights, nor do most deserve them.

I think the issue is more of tangeable verus intangeable rights.

A LOT of Amurkins would blow their tops at the merest mention of say, restrictions on their Second Amendment right to bear arms, but on the other hand, would blink dumbly at the mention of preserving their Fourth Amendment rights against unreasonable search and seizure of the little electronic bits of data that comprise their telephone records. The former is a physical thing; they can hold it, and it represents an object they can utilize in the defense of their personal privacy and safety. Electronic data files don't have the same sense of tangeable security; it's not something they can touch, in most instances, they are only barely aware of its existence, so they tend to not attach the same amount of importance to it.

I'm not arguing that they shouldn't care just as much about protecting their right to privacy with regard to something like this, just that I can understand to a degree why they don't.