7 ms·

The government isn't going to save us, they love it and are in bed with these corporations; the more control, the better. Locked down computing, no anonymity o

The government isn't going to save us, they love it and are in bed with these corporations; the more control, the better. Locked down computing, no anonymity online, the threat of losing banking/credit accounts, and authorities showing up to arrest you if you challenge the current dogma too strongly. We're so cooked.

cyanydeez 1y ago
[flagged]
- quantummagic 1y ago
  Not in Canada. People lost access to their bank accounts for donating to the wrong political protest, ie. the trucker convoy. And worldwide, people are losing access to their Paypal banking option, if they transgress Paypal's opinion on good taste. Seems each western country is taking the forefront in one aspect of the destruction of political and social freedom; with the worst, so far, being the UK.
  - tavavex 1y ago
    Canada doesn't have a direct, systematic way of blocking these transactions in the same way how other western countries are building up their systems. Your example was only made possible after the invocation of the Emergencies Act, which was shortly repealed. Whether using the EA was justified is still hotly debated, but most Ottawans living there at the time would agree that it was. This wasn't just a "wrong political protest", like the government punished people for having the wrong political opinion. Right-wing and far-right protests happen all the time in a political place like Ottawa. The issue here was the scale and the intensity - it was less a defined protest event and more of an attempt to settle in Ottawa for an indeterminate amount of time, complete with harassing locals while demanding accommodation to not freeze in the winter nights. I wouldn't be surprised if those "peaceful protestors" gave a lot of the downtown residents hearing or lung damage. The restrictions that came into effect then seem more like the exception than the rule, the government isn't by default authorized to do whatever. Even in something that had so little support, the pushback against the government's response was considerable. So I wouldn't portray any of it as something systemic or easy to do, like what some other nations are building up in their push towards authoritarianism. I agree that in general the world is moving towards more authoritarianism and control in all facets, but I think Canada is still solidly lagging behind their friends in the UK, US, Australia and some EU countries. We still have no internet censorship authority. There is still hope to push back internet regulation a bit, even though it's obvious it won't last forever. The bills to clamp down will just be reintroduced over and over again until one of them passes. Still, banking bans are unlikely to come anytime soon, unless the people decide to threaten a whole city and the national government by putting on another J6 reenactment.
- fruitworks 1y ago
  Not really. People got debanked all the time for political reasons in the last 10 years
tetris11 1y ago
About a year ago, I looked at my collection of old phones and laptops and smirked at my needless hoarding. Now? I feel like I'm sitting on gold by keeping these cheap dumb devices around.
- bonoboTP 1y ago
  Until they deprecate old SIM cards and make new ones that refuse to work in legacy phones.
  - deleted 1y ago
    [deleted]
- Telaneo 1y ago
  2G and 3G networks are already being dismantled, if not already gone, in several parts of the world. Even if you do want to stick to those devices out of principle, you often can't, or if you can, only for maybe 5 more years. You can still buy equivalent dumb phones, but they aren't any more open than the rest of the rabble. Laptops are a different story, although I believe part of that battle was already lost when the Intel SSM and AMD equivalent came around. We'll see how things go when banks start to require you to enable (In)Secure Boot just to be able to log in through a browser on a PC.
- npteljes 1y ago
  I'd still consider it hoarding. Depending on how old they are, phones have diminishing network compatibility, and cheap, dumb devices are in production still, and will be for the indefinite future. So it's not like they are a resource that the world has run out of. Old laptops age better, but it's not like anyone restricts software on laptops, or will ever be able.
isaacremuant 1y ago
We are not cooked. You only need to recognize that covid policies were theater and enabled them to rapidly advance in this direction and that the typical cultural left/right bullshit is a distraction. If people stop the bullshit it's not that hard to effectively oppose
- bigyabai 1y ago
  Non-sequitur. Covid policies weren't used to damage my online security or manufacture my consent for digital change. If you're going to use unrelated discussions to launder your conspiracy theory, at least provide evidence. Otherwise we get to dismiss you without trial which is faster but less fun.
  - isaacremuant 1y ago
    Yes. They were. V passports. Censorship of so called disinformation. I don't give a flying fuck if you dismiss me. You already did in 2020, 2021 and so on and I'm still here, didn't you? Now I get to see you move uncomfortably while still ready to lick the next boot. Enjoy it.
    - cindyllm 1y ago
      [dead]
    - bigyabai 1y ago
      You can be as sick and infected as you want, on the property you own. On public property, it is the state's foremost priority to ensure you aren't threatening other people's lives. My taxpayer dollars go towards ensuring you aren't killing my family and friends, be it with a gun or a virus. So yeah, your comment was completely unrelated as phones aren't public property. I don't expect to be able to control the DMV or my local Kroger, but I absolutely do expect my phone to behave as-advertised.
      - isaacremuant 1y ago
solid_fuel 1y ago
Our politicians are bought and owned, and it's hard to expect anything else after Citizens United. If we want a government to serve and protect us we must ensure that our politicians actually represent us.

cyanydeez 1y ago

[flagged]

quantummagic 1y ago
Not in Canada. People lost access to their bank accounts for donating to the wrong political protest, ie. the trucker convoy. And worldwide, people are losing access to their Paypal banking option, if they transgress Paypal's opinion on good taste. Seems each western country is taking the forefront in one aspect of the destruction of political and social freedom; with the worst, so far, being the UK.
- tavavex 1y ago
  Canada doesn't have a direct, systematic way of blocking these transactions in the same way how other western countries are building up their systems. Your example was only made possible after the invocation of the Emergencies Act, which was shortly repealed. Whether using the EA was justified is still hotly debated, but most Ottawans living there at the time would agree that it was. This wasn't just a "wrong political protest", like the government punished people for having the wrong political opinion. Right-wing and far-right protests happen all the time in a political place like Ottawa. The issue here was the scale and the intensity - it was less a defined protest event and more of an attempt to settle in Ottawa for an indeterminate amount of time, complete with harassing locals while demanding accommodation to not freeze in the winter nights. I wouldn't be surprised if those "peaceful protestors" gave a lot of the downtown residents hearing or lung damage. The restrictions that came into effect then seem more like the exception than the rule, the government isn't by default authorized to do whatever. Even in something that had so little support, the pushback against the government's response was considerable. So I wouldn't portray any of it as something systemic or easy to do, like what some other nations are building up in their push towards authoritarianism. I agree that in general the world is moving towards more authoritarianism and control in all facets, but I think Canada is still solidly lagging behind their friends in the UK, US, Australia and some EU countries. We still have no internet censorship authority. There is still hope to push back internet regulation a bit, even though it's obvious it won't last forever. The bills to clamp down will just be reintroduced over and over again until one of them passes. Still, banking bans are unlikely to come anytime soon, unless the people decide to threaten a whole city and the national government by putting on another J6 reenactment.
fruitworks 1y ago
Not really. People got debanked all the time for political reasons in the last 10 years

tetris11 1y ago

About a year ago, I looked at my collection of old phones and laptops and smirked at my needless hoarding. Now? I feel like I'm sitting on gold by keeping these cheap dumb devices around.

bonoboTP 1y ago
Until they deprecate old SIM cards and make new ones that refuse to work in legacy phones.
- deleted 1y ago
  [deleted]
Telaneo 1y ago
2G and 3G networks are already being dismantled, if not already gone, in several parts of the world. Even if you do want to stick to those devices out of principle, you often can't, or if you can, only for maybe 5 more years. You can still buy equivalent dumb phones, but they aren't any more open than the rest of the rabble. Laptops are a different story, although I believe part of that battle was already lost when the Intel SSM and AMD equivalent came around. We'll see how things go when banks start to require you to enable (In)Secure Boot just to be able to log in through a browser on a PC.
npteljes 1y ago
I'd still consider it hoarding. Depending on how old they are, phones have diminishing network compatibility, and cheap, dumb devices are in production still, and will be for the indefinite future. So it's not like they are a resource that the world has run out of. Old laptops age better, but it's not like anyone restricts software on laptops, or will ever be able.

isaacremuant 1y ago

We are not cooked. You only need to recognize that covid policies were theater and enabled them to rapidly advance in this direction and that the typical cultural left/right bullshit is a distraction. If people stop the bullshit it's not that hard to effectively oppose

bigyabai 1y ago
Non-sequitur. Covid policies weren't used to damage my online security or manufacture my consent for digital change. If you're going to use unrelated discussions to launder your conspiracy theory, at least provide evidence. Otherwise we get to dismiss you without trial which is faster but less fun.
- isaacremuant 1y ago
  Yes. They were. V passports. Censorship of so called disinformation. I don't give a flying fuck if you dismiss me. You already did in 2020, 2021 and so on and I'm still here, didn't you? Now I get to see you move uncomfortably while still ready to lick the next boot. Enjoy it.
  - cindyllm 1y ago
    [dead]
  - bigyabai 1y ago
    You can be as sick and infected as you want, on the property you own. On public property, it is the state's foremost priority to ensure you aren't threatening other people's lives. My taxpayer dollars go towards ensuring you aren't killing my family and friends, be it with a gun or a virus. So yeah, your comment was completely unrelated as phones aren't public property. I don't expect to be able to control the DMV or my local Kroger, but I absolutely do expect my phone to behave as-advertised.
    - isaacremuant 1y ago

solid_fuel 1y ago

Our politicians are bought and owned, and it's hard to expect anything else after Citizens United. If we want a government to serve and protect us we must ensure that our politicians actually represent us.