Discussion
I've spent some of the afternoon on a zoom call with a bunch of friends in the US.
And what I noticed, rather eerily, is that a lot of them have that hazy look that one sees on recently released hostages.
I hadn't realised just how much my friends had been metaphorically holding their breath for years. I didn't realise how the stress of daily reports of iniquity had created almost unbearable stress for them.
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And for anyone who pipes in that the battle isn't over yet. No, you're right. It's not. But this is the beginning of the end of Trump. And now you know you have the power to refuse.
I really hope someone organises a national march soon to celebrate each other. You really need it.
And then to work. Because the poison that allowed for Trump is the longer-term project that needs your strength.
But now I know, and you know, you can do it!
The new majority has proposed and passed numerous laws to shut down the Fediverse and give a monopoly on speech to Facebook, same as the old majority, justified by the same “think of the children” lie.
I'm not any less terrified than I was last month. He who takes my voice, privacy, and friends today is planning to take my life tomorrow.
And you expect me to march and celebrate? While staring down a soon-to-be-non-metaphorical gun barrel? You've got to be kidding.
The new majority has proposed and passed numerous laws to shut down the Fediverse and give a monopoly on speech to Facebook, same as the old majority, justified by the same “think of the children” lie.I suppose that this poisonous pursuit to control peoples' communication in Internet via "think of the children" bullshit will end when the old generation (born at the "pre-Internet" era) of politics come away because of natural reasons, since humans are not immortal 🙂. The new generation of politics will invent new ways to make themselves above the people and law.
I am not a supporter of unlimited free speech, nor do I think banning alcohol for children has made it inaccessible to adults.
But the devil is in the details, as always.
Alcohol bans are enforced by store clerks, and did not have the effect of giving a monopoly on alcohol to billion-dollar corporations.
Age verification laws are enforced by either AI or on-device spyware.
AI is the most expensive technology ever invented. Donation-funded websites will be crushed like eggshells by such an obligation.
On-device spyware allows authoritarians and cybercriminals to eavesdrop on every word we speak in our very homes.
Also, on-device spyware implies that free and open-source operating systems are illegal, and thus hands a monopoly to big tech companies—the very same companies that these legislators pretend to be protecting our children from!
AI ID checks, meanwhile, also give those big tech companies a monopoly, because only they can afford it.
Either way, this protects no one, and puts us all, child and adult alike, in terrible danger.
As for “not [being] a supporter of unlimited free speech”, exactly who do you trust with the power to decide to who, where, and what you are allowed to say? The White House? Big tech companies? If there is an arbiter of such things at all, then you do realize that that's who the arbiter will be, don't you?
Since you've clearly no love of the government we've had for the past two years, I would think you of all people would be wary of power concentration…
@argv_minus_one
Do not talk to me like I am an idiot.
Most countries in the world, other than the US, have legal limits on freedom of speech. In Canada, public racist utterances are illegal. I'm totally fine with that.
Look at where the US's freedom of speech has gotten it? It got it Trump.
You mistake the rule of law for oppression. They can be the same thing. But often they are not.
Most countries in the world, other than the US, have legal limits on freedom of speech. In Canada, public racist utterances are illegal. I'm totally fine with that.That's before these laws are not weaponized against you 😉. In Russia the public racist utterances are also illegal and prohibited by the law. But this law is heavily used to prosecute "wrongthinking" people - just proclaim some picture or words an illegal and put necessary amount of people in jail to meet the quota.
@evgandr Any law can be weaponised by assholes in power. If the alternative is a society without laws, then it's not a society. It's the jungle. Good luck there, Mr. Lion. @argv_minus_one
So, I want to apologise to all my US friends on here if I was too stupid to understand that you were, essentially, hostages.
It takes a time to absorb a new reality. When people get used to living under a thundercloud of fear and impending disaster for years, they develop coping mechanisms that work well for that environment, but not as well for the time when there is respite.
So please give yourselves time. And be kind to yourselves. There is lots to do, but for a few days just breathe.