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I would vote for you to worry about increasing restrictions of freedom by governments outside of the west, since the overton window for acceptable policy propos

I would vote for you to worry about increasing restrictions of freedom by governments outside of the west, since the overton window for acceptable policy proposals will be pushed on by what other nations get away with. If China succeeds in monitoring all of their citizens and manipulating them into an easy to govern mass of conformity and subservience through their social credit system, it seems highly likely that that will at least make people in the west slightly more willing to move in that direction than if the whole world would just agree that it was far beyond the pale.

ccrush 7y ago
If that social credit bullshit makes its way here, they'll be prying the last bit of freedom out of my cold, dead hands. I don't give a fuck about China or what those clowns believe in, and if I'll have to risk never visiting their cement and plastic factory of a shit hole country, it'll be just fine. I'm never going there with their social credit system, and I bet you all the world's money isn't either. No one is giving up that much freedom when they're getting so little in return. It's absurd to anyone that doesn't understand why it's in place, and once the generations that originated it based on the ugliness of the recent past, the truth is that it'll go away over and over again. That, combined with the fact that it's such a fragile system to begin with (i.e., it takes quite a bit of human involvement to run all aspects of it including policing and interrogation and incarceration) means that the system can't survive a generational divide.
- SkyBelow 7y ago
  >If that social credit bullshit makes its way here What do you think about private companies providing a similar service, for example to potential employers?
boo-boo-nah-nah 7y ago
So, let’s just contemplate for a second, the idea that China clamps down, and succeeds in technological oppression. They do indeed triumph in their vision of conformity and subservience, producing the perception that the technology restricted a population in ways making it easier to govern. That doesn’t mean China wasn’t already easy to govern, and that the technology is mostly incidental. It also doesn’t mean that the same here wouldn’t be met with violent backlash and abject vitriol, if ever such a transgression were put upon us, even though we watch from afar with idle bemusement for now. Point being, history has lots of examples where it happens over there and it sucks for them but so what. Then, you try it on us over here, and get your fucking head ripped off, because yeah, nah... So, you know, it’s fine if China wants to fuck around like a bunch of dipshits with their thumbs up their asses. But don’t think for a second that the same thing’s going to go down that way over here.
firethief 7y ago
Wouldn't the Overton effect invert over long enough perceived cultural distance, or am I overestimating xenophobia and they-took-our-jerbs effect? There are definitely non-Overton mechanisms that make national policy contagious, though.

ccrush 7y ago

If that social credit bullshit makes its way here, they'll be prying the last bit of freedom out of my cold, dead hands. I don't give a fuck about China or what those clowns believe in, and if I'll have to risk never visiting their cement and plastic factory of a shit hole country, it'll be just fine. I'm never going there with their social credit system, and I bet you all the world's money isn't either. No one is giving up that much freedom when they're getting so little in return. It's absurd to anyone that doesn't understand why it's in place, and once the generations that originated it based on the ugliness of the recent past, the truth is that it'll go away over and over again. That, combined with the fact that it's such a fragile system to begin with (i.e., it takes quite a bit of human involvement to run all aspects of it including policing and interrogation and incarceration) means that the system can't survive a generational divide.

SkyBelow 7y ago
>If that social credit bullshit makes its way here What do you think about private companies providing a similar service, for example to potential employers?

boo-boo-nah-nah 7y ago

So, let’s just contemplate for a second, the idea that China clamps down, and succeeds in technological oppression. They do indeed triumph in their vision of conformity and subservience, producing the perception that the technology restricted a population in ways making it easier to govern. That doesn’t mean China wasn’t already easy to govern, and that the technology is mostly incidental. It also doesn’t mean that the same here wouldn’t be met with violent backlash and abject vitriol, if ever such a transgression were put upon us, even though we watch from afar with idle bemusement for now. Point being, history has lots of examples where it happens over there and it sucks for them but so what. Then, you try it on us over here, and get your fucking head ripped off, because yeah, nah... So, you know, it’s fine if China wants to fuck around like a bunch of dipshits with their thumbs up their asses. But don’t think for a second that the same thing’s going to go down that way over here.

firethief 7y ago

Wouldn't the Overton effect invert over long enough perceived cultural distance, or am I overestimating xenophobia and they-took-our-jerbs effect? There are definitely non-Overton mechanisms that make national policy contagious, though.