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The government should move to China if this is what they like. Aren’t we meant to be a free and democratic society?

by _lvbh 3y ago

midasuni 3y ago
We don’t want to be. Look at the glee from the average person when it comes to tracking their every move, from ring doorbells to surveillance capitalism
- lijok 3y ago
  Lets not confuse the average persons lack of technical knowledge with them wishing to have their privacy and rights violated
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
  - shapefrog 3y ago
    People are incredibly comfortable with everyone elses privacy and rights being violated
mhh__ 3y ago
Labour love this type of shite too.
- jmopp 3y ago
  It does make me think that one of the problems with Britain is a lack of proper checks and balances: the notion of parliamentary sovereignty kind-of implies that judges can't really overrule problematic laws. While the US system isn't perfect, at least it limits the blast radius of any would-be autocrats.
  - arp242 3y ago
    A small group of judges appointed for life passing down laws isn't exactly a brilliant "check and balance" in my opinion, and UK has the House of Lords for that. Let's not forget that Boris Johnson was eventually disposed by his own party, unlike that blond tit on the other side of the pond. The electoral system is the problem in both. The nuances are different, but by and large the causes are the same: alternating power between two parties where national issues and "the party" have become more important than "representing your constituency". A lot of the important issues fundamentally are national issues, so that's not really a surprise.
ben_w 3y ago
> Aren’t we meant to be a free and democratic society Only when that's on the banner the country is told to cheer under. When it's a royal wedding, when it's "F D" or "FID DEF" printed on coins, when it's the requirements that all schools have collective worship of "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character"[0]… then suddenly it's a whole lot more like a theocratic monarchy. From the surveys I've seen, the UK electorate seems broadly OK with the monarchy part of that (not that they have any real say in it because that's not how monarchy works), and regards the Christian[1] parts as harmless quaint tradition of no real significance. [0] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/31/schedule/20?view=plain https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/31/schedule/20?vie... [1] I first wrote "religious", but large parts of the UK seem to still be scared of anyone with the "wrong" religion, though which one counts as "wrong" varies wildly.

The government should move to China if this is what they like. Aren’t we meant to be a free and democratic society?

by _lvbh 3y ago

The government should move to China if this is what they like. Aren’t we meant to be a free and democratic society?

We don’t want to be. Look at the glee from the average person when it comes to tracking their every move, from ring doorbells to surveillance capitalism

lijok 3y ago
Lets not confuse the average persons lack of technical knowledge with them wishing to have their privacy and rights violated
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
- shapefrog 3y ago
  People are incredibly comfortable with everyone elses privacy and rights being violated

mhh__ 3y ago

Labour love this type of shite too.

jmopp 3y ago
It does make me think that one of the problems with Britain is a lack of proper checks and balances: the notion of parliamentary sovereignty kind-of implies that judges can't really overrule problematic laws. While the US system isn't perfect, at least it limits the blast radius of any would-be autocrats.
- arp242 3y ago
  A small group of judges appointed for life passing down laws isn't exactly a brilliant "check and balance" in my opinion, and UK has the House of Lords for that. Let's not forget that Boris Johnson was eventually disposed by his own party, unlike that blond tit on the other side of the pond. The electoral system is the problem in both. The nuances are different, but by and large the causes are the same: alternating power between two parties where national issues and "the party" have become more important than "representing your constituency". A lot of the important issues fundamentally are national issues, so that's not really a surprise.

ben_w 3y ago

> Aren’t we meant to be a free and democratic society Only when that's on the banner the country is told to cheer under. When it's a royal wedding, when it's "F D" or "FID DEF" printed on coins, when it's the requirements that all schools have collective worship of "wholly or mainly of a broadly Christian character"[0]… then suddenly it's a whole lot more like a theocratic monarchy. From the surveys I've seen, the UK electorate seems broadly OK with the monarchy part of that (not that they have any real say in it because that's not how monarchy works), and regards the Christian[1] parts as harmless quaint tradition of no real significance. [0] https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/31/schedule/20?view=plain https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/1998/31/schedule/20?vie... [1] I first wrote "religious", but large parts of the UK seem to still be scared of anyone with the "wrong" religion, though which one counts as "wrong" varies wildly.