Coen, do you realise how incredibly patronising "Finally you're getting it." actually sounds?
No, I'm not getting it...I've always got it. There are bad and misguided people in the world who through sheer evil, or more often lack of consideration for others or all of the relevant factors, manage do bad things....including usurping powers they have no right to. We even have a phrase for the latter: "The road to Hell is paved with good intentions."
What I don't do is get all worked up about it like some teenager discovering sex for the first time, utterly convinced that no one else in the entire history of mankind has ever 'discovered' this before.
Liberty requires vigilance, it doesn't require paranoia. (That US Bill doesn't even mean the end of commercial organic farming in the US, much less an end to growing food for your own consumption...although it is clearly a case of Monsanto flexing its muscles; and it is still perfectly legal to photograph policemen in the UK...just not when they are on anti-terrorist stake-outs. Hyperbole never helps anyone's case.)
As for what I tell my children...nothing. There is a difference between telling and discussing. They are old enough, intelligent enough and mature enough to weigh the evidence for themselves and come to the appropriate conclusions without any prepping from me.
