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Re:Changes to UK Surveillance Regime May Violate Internation... by cjbgkagh on Friday August 25, 2023 @01:11PM (#37264288)
There are many things I care about but I don’t dare tell people what they are. Society is rapidly changing and I don’t want to be caught on the wrong side of it - I still Have to survive. I can’t afford to be boycotted or have my accounts frozen. Since society is changing, even if I go along with what is ok today there is no guarantee that such views will be ok tomorrow. So I’ve decided to live life as a non-combatant, I stay out of politics and simply do what I can to mitigate the damage to myself and those that I care about. We simply don’t live in an era that tolerates political dissent and throwing myself against the gears isn’t going to change anything.
Re:Changes to UK Surveillance Regime May Violate Internation... by tenpies on Friday August 25, 2023 @02:29PM (#37265410)
Keep a diary or log. I have, since COVID gave the tyrants an excuse.

It's a fantastic way to see what gets memory-holed and where the gas-lighting efforts are spent.

Maybe one of us ends up as required reading for whatever civilization emerges from the ashes.

Re:Changes to UK Surveillance Regime May Violate Internation... by cjbgkagh on Friday August 25, 2023 @02:58PM (#37265765)
I'll let Peter Hitchens keep a chronicle. I'm collecting and studying enlightenment era literature to better understand what is being destroyed and what will need to be put back. I don't think the modern era is unique, I do think we're in the twilight of the enlightenment which was an unusually good time for my subset of humanity. Like Chertersons fense, we've forgotten how we got here and we're removing freedoms without understanding the consequences. My main goal is to avoid involvement in any great power conflict. I think I'm an unusual 'prepper' in that my long held prediction of 'collapse' was specifically the cost of living criss we are now experiencing. I prepared for it by investing in software that is inflation resistant. I targeted the low-cost substitutable good market so for me bad times are good.
Re:Changes to UK Surveillance Regime May Violate Internation... by eastbound on Friday August 25, 2023 @03:00PM (#37265790)
I recently met a boomer and I had the shills, hearing him in Paris in 1968 mounting barricades, feeling that he had an impact on the course of the entire political world, feeling that he was setting the direction while mounting theater plays and opening up girl’s dormitories (reference: What triggered Paris’ May 1968 is the girls being locked up at night in their universities).

Compared to today. Even the major majority of the population can’t do a thing about the force propaganda, and the ones who protest see a million AI-generated flame pieces in newspapers.

Re:Changes to UK Surveillance Regime May Violate Internation... by hilbert42 on Saturday August 26, 2023 @03:59AM (#37270719)
"I recently met a boomer and I had the shills, hearing him in Paris in 1968 mounting barricades, feeling that he had an impact on the course of the entire political world,"

I've never felt more politically empowered than during that time, it's been a steady slide downwards since. I now feel helpless and neutered. I just wish that time would return.

Re:Changes to UK Surveillance Regime May Violate Internation... by gochi on Friday August 25, 2023 @04:00PM (#37266339)
I struggle with comments like these. It's too vague to be useful to discuss, yet vagueness is exactly the intention. It's an extreme form of paranoia, yet relatable in its delusions of grandeur.

I'll continue to be political though. My survival and those I care about depend on it, as we are not the status quo. Hopefully you understand.

Re:Changes to UK Surveillance Regime May Violate Internation... by toyg on Friday August 25, 2023 @06:22PM (#37267751)
Lol. Political dissent wasn't tolerated in the 1900s (wanna strike? You'll probably get shot), in the 1910s (why are you not in a trench dying for your country?), in the 1920s (striking again? Will get shot again), in the 1930s (reading the news? That's a Jewish thing, isn't it?), in the 1940s (why are you not in a trench dying for your country?), in the 1950s (reading the news? That's a communist thing, isn't it?), in the 1960s (long hair? That's a communist thing, isn't it?), in the 1970s (studying? That's a communist thing, isn't it?), in the 1980s (worrying about nuclear Holocaust? That's a communist thing, isn't it?), in the 1990s (bitching about globalization? Here's some anti-riot gear to the face), in the 2000s (why are you not in Afghanistan dying for your country?), in the 2010s (got a video of brown people getting murdered? Your life is over)...

Political dissent was never tolerated. Some generations just claimed their right to it a bit harder than others, and even then it was always a minority doing it - most people (including me, more often than not) will just trade political cowardice for a quiet life. That's all there is. Just don't pretend that it's the result of some fine analysis - it's just plain cowardice.

Re:Changes to UK Surveillance Regime May Violate Internation... by cjbgkagh on Friday August 25, 2023 @07:19PM (#37268243)
You're attacking a strawman. I think it's clear that it's the dose that makes the poison. Hate speech laws and debanking are a recent phenomena and add a degree of severity to the punishment that the governments can mete out that has not existed in modern times. Additionally the internationalization of policing means you can no longer easily escape to another country. You can't go hang out in Canada or Switzerland anymore. And there did used to be a culture of high tolerance, 'I don't agree with what you say but I will defend to the death for your right to say it,' that has all but disappeared.