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This is the creepiest thing I've ever read. As a teen, I was absolutely sure the Internet would liberate us all never saw it being a weapon of oppression as mu

This is the creepiest thing I've ever read. As a teen, I was absolutely sure the Internet would liberate us all never saw it being a weapon of oppression as much as it has become. :-(

StavrosK 9y ago
That's because most people don't care about privacy before it's too late. "The government can monitor what sites you access!" "Oh, I have nothing to hide." Then the government changes, and the thing that was considered okay before is now something that you need to hide, but you have no privacy because you didn't see why you'd need it. Now you're in jail because of a tracking pixel. "I have nothing to hide" implies "yet". Do you think you will never have anything to hide in the future as well? Most people don't think that far ahead.
simonh 9y ago
I remember people saying in the 90s that soon free software and the internet would make previous systems of politics and economics irrelevant. Still waiting.
nekopa 9y ago
When were you a teen? I remember having the exact same thoughts when I was a teen. I think it was in 1990 I was at college in the UK and I remember reading a Usenet thread about some student riots going on in Portugal. The media coverage at the time was completely off from what I was hearing from the students 'online'. I remember really believing that the internet really would liberate us all with unfettered access to truth and communication and so on. Fast forward a few years to 1995 and one Christmas (I was in the US then) I decided to take a look at the 'web' and the liberation it had brought so far. I called it my deep dive into the dark underbelly of the Internet. And what I found on that night over my dial-up connection stays with me to this day: facism, racism, gore, bestiality, hatred, child porn. Yes, the Internet liberates us. It allows us to freely be the humans we are, on a larger scale. Unfortunately, humanity has a rather large dark side to it. So this story doesn't surprise me in the least - but I still hold out hope that we may one day do better.
jasonkostempski 9y ago
Everything is a weapon in the right (wrong?) hands. People want to keep weapons from their perceived enemies. Until there's a weapon only "good" can wield, nothing will liberate us all :/
Kalium 9y ago
The internet has liberated us, as a species. We've become more ourselves. Unfortunately, it turns out that being ourselves doesn't mean what we might have hoped.

This is the creepiest thing I've ever read. As a teen, I was absolutely sure the Internet would liberate us all never saw it being a weapon of oppression as much as it has become. :-(

StavrosK 9y ago

That's because most people don't care about privacy before it's too late. "The government can monitor what sites you access!" "Oh, I have nothing to hide." Then the government changes, and the thing that was considered okay before is now something that you need to hide, but you have no privacy because you didn't see why you'd need it. Now you're in jail because of a tracking pixel. "I have nothing to hide" implies "yet". Do you think you will never have anything to hide in the future as well? Most people don't think that far ahead.

simonh 9y ago

I remember people saying in the 90s that soon free software and the internet would make previous systems of politics and economics irrelevant. Still waiting.

nekopa 9y ago

When were you a teen? I remember having the exact same thoughts when I was a teen. I think it was in 1990 I was at college in the UK and I remember reading a Usenet thread about some student riots going on in Portugal. The media coverage at the time was completely off from what I was hearing from the students 'online'. I remember really believing that the internet really would liberate us all with unfettered access to truth and communication and so on. Fast forward a few years to 1995 and one Christmas (I was in the US then) I decided to take a look at the 'web' and the liberation it had brought so far. I called it my deep dive into the dark underbelly of the Internet. And what I found on that night over my dial-up connection stays with me to this day: facism, racism, gore, bestiality, hatred, child porn. Yes, the Internet liberates us. It allows us to freely be the humans we are, on a larger scale. Unfortunately, humanity has a rather large dark side to it. So this story doesn't surprise me in the least - but I still hold out hope that we may one day do better.

jasonkostempski 9y ago

Everything is a weapon in the right (wrong?) hands. People want to keep weapons from their perceived enemies. Until there's a weapon only "good" can wield, nothing will liberate us all :/

Kalium 9y ago

The internet has liberated us, as a species. We've become more ourselves. Unfortunately, it turns out that being ourselves doesn't mean what we might have hoped.