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"People I meet jokingly suggest I must be on a watchlist. Humour tinged with the tiniest sliver of doubt. Others joke that they won’t play the game because they
by cryoshon 11y ago
"People I meet jokingly suggest I must be on a watchlist. Humour tinged with the tiniest sliver of doubt. Others joke that they won’t play the game because they’ll be added to one. We like to believe that our behaviour isn’t affected, the panopticon has no hold over us, but there remains an insidious fear that our self-censorship is inescapable and manifest.
Should I google that word, or visit that site? Or use that encryption method? Or play that game?
Maybe not."
And this is exactly why totalitarian surveillance can't be allowed to metastasize any further. The mere existence of the capability to spy on people's thoughts causes self-censorship and conformity.
- bediger4000 11y agoI personally think twice before googling for some term(s) that aren't related to pop stars and tween celebrities. I am censoring myself already. When it's revealed that the FBI has manipulated at least one politician because of the electronic dossiers they keep, I will be laughing. Bitterly.
- theseatoms 11y agoI purposefully do not hold back when googling. Sure, I sometimes think twice. But I'd rather live freely in the moment than self-censor due to a vague (though admittedly plausible) future totalitarian threat. Or maybe you'd call it poor impulse control. Either way, what a rebel. /s
- semi-extrinsic 11y agoI had some fun googles this summer: was working on building a boat using strip plank construction, informally known as "a stripper". So you end up searching for stuff like "how to vacuum bag a stripper"...
- shalmanese 11y agoIf such a thing were possible, surely Donald Trump's campaign would have imploded already. It's hard to think of anything more threatening to the existing political order than Trump's campaign successes at this point and the lack of anything that's hurt him seems to suggest there hasn't been any underhanded campaigns against him.
- mirimir 11y agoTrue, sadly enough :( Better response is using VPN services and Tor.