Under the slogan ‘Think of the children’, the European Commission tried to introduce total surveillance of all EU citizens. When the scandal was revealed, it turned out that American tech companies and security services had been involved in the bill, generally known as ‘Chat Control’ – and that the whole thing had been directed by completely different interests. Now comes the next attempt. New battering rams have been brought out with the ‘Going Dark’ initiative. But the ambition is the same: to install state spyware on every European cell phone and computers.
I am kind of tired of these posts. They need to be mentioned and discussed but you view these as an “anti west” article from my understanding.
The US, UK and other countries are bad but they are no where close to Russia, China, Iran or New Zealand in terms of the level of authoritarian surveillance. China and Russia especially are known for attacking and aiming to destroy free expression.
Ah this must be the whataboutism I keep hearing about.
You can hear your own obsessive posts?
What I can hear is just how mad you are about seeing them. It’s really great to know that they get under your skin to the point where you have to follow me around and make these vapid comments of yours.
I don’t live in those places, so 1) they don’t affect me or anyone else in my country and 2) there’s nothing I can do about them.
I do think we should raise awareness of attacks on democracy, freedom of speech or journalism.
I kind of annoys me a little when some person on Lemmy says how great Russia or China is. Sure US surveillance is not great to to compare it to China is not a great comparison. Maybe I’m just taking it to seriously.
China is no utopia and Russia much less so, but neither is nearly as bad as imperial core governments & corporate media try to convince us they are, and neither holds a candle to my own country.
US is definitely worse than China, mister/miss
?
China literally bans opposition and free expression. The Chinese courts are literally just a show for the one single controlling party of China.
Every society puts limits on free expression. Even the most thoroughly indoctrinated liberals are starting to realize why free speech absolutism is a bad idea. The only difference is in the limits on free speech different societies place, and what types of speech are suppressed. It’s pure chauvinism to think that the west got the balance right while everyone else got it wrong. Meanwhile, the number of parties have fuck all to do with anything. It’s whom the parties represent that matters.
I never said the US was perfect. It is far from it.
However, I do think freedom of belief and freedom of speech are very important. You also need some good journalism somewhere in the mix.
I find it kind of concerning that Russia, a large powerful country, is now being run by a man who is set on keeping power and restricting access to information. Russia now has its own Wikipedia that is heavily censored because the government is scared that Russians might start not liking the current government. I don’t know if you are in Russia or somewhere close but I would personally refuse to accept censorship. Using Tor is a must now to find out the truth. Draw your own conclusions and be mindful of bias and blatant propaganda. I find that news sites like the BBC tend to be fairly trustworthy although they are UK left leaning.
I also think “East vs West” is a cold war type settlement shared by leaders in both Russia and the US. In reality the cold war didn’t do much other than cost a lot of time and money. It did jump start space travel.
I am sorry if I am being a bit harsh. It just annoys me at the level of blinders people have. I’m sure I have my own set of blinders.
It’s pretty clear that access to information has very little to do with what the government actually does or whose interests it represents. For example, here’s what a study analyzing many decades of US policy had to conclude
US gives people the right to scream into the void while any tangible freedoms they had have been stripped away long ago. The public has no agency within the political system, and their interests aren’t represented. Everybody knows this, and nobody can do anything about it. The US is an open dictatorship of capital, but you get this intangible free speech that can’t actually be translated into any meaningful action. And when people do try to use their speech to effect change then the government murders them as seen with MLK, Fred Hampton, Assange, and many others.
If you think this is a better model for society than what China is doing, I really don’t know what else to tell you. At least in China the government demonstrably works in the interest of the working majority. I’ll take that over free speech absolutism any day.
In China you can’t even protest without being arrested. I can confidently say I’m glad not to be in China.
Wrong. Article 35 http://www.npc.gov.cn/zgrdw/englishnpc/Constitution/2007-11/15/content_1372964.htm
That’s demonstrably false. People in China protest all the time. The fact that you genuinely believe this shows just how gullible you are falling for the propaganda that your state media like BBC feeds you.
Well I think any limits on free speech are bad
then you should educate yourself on the problem of fascism
Free speech and freedom of creating parties are different things
Last I checked creating parties is an expression of speech. Also, if you love free speech absolutism so much, then there’s always twitter. Sounds like you’d be much more comfortable with that crowd.
Sorry I hate your ideas way too much to continue this discussion without fighting
US literally starts and supports wars, spends tax money on nothing except military and surveillance, creates propaganda to make the people more aggressive and “patriotic”. The first thing is worse than China’s because China hurts freedom when US hurts physically. Technically it is worse. You can say that there’s bad air quality in China but it’s not the same thing
No it doesn’t. China is FAR more free than the US.
New Zealand?
Yes
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The user who posted this constantly posts these kinds of articles. I just though it should be brought up.
aww muffin, you don’t like it when people hold a mirror to your society
Its not that these articles are irrelevant. They are definitely talking about real privacy issues. The problem is when people try to say that Russia or China are some how these great empires that are complete free of issues.
I’m not sure if you realized or not but Russia and China are much less private and have state dictated history. You can’t even read the public Wikipedia articles as they give you access to real information instead of the state narrative. For instance, back in WWII the US ran interment camps to imprison Asian Americans. It was wrong and terrible in many ways (I used to know a survivor) but the difference is it isn’t illegal to talk about or share information and discuss historically or current events.
Maybe its just me but I don’t like when people comment saying how China or Russia can do no wrong.
You’re literally the one who sealioned into this thread to bleat about Russia and China, sucking up air from any meaningful discussion. Try engaging with the content of the article instead of doing your whatabouting. Also not sure who said that Russia or China can do no wrong. Seems like a weird straw man you came up with in lieu of having any actual point to make.
Yeah maybe your right. At the end of the day I just don’t like people underplaying human rights abuses.
I’ll leave my comments up as I don’t see a reason to delete them. However, I’ll just ignore this thread.
WHAT human rights abuses? Is there a source that doesn’t link back to the CIA or state department?
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And he will continue to do so. Maybe give “⊘ Block user” a try.
Yeah, you got a point. I just thought I’d bring it up before blocking.
Thanks for the reminder.
China and Russia are far more free than the US. In the US you can’t even peacefully protest against genocide. You can’t even criticize politicians. One guy was visited by capitol police just for criticizing AOC on Twitter (he did not threaten her in any way). In China and Russia you can talk shit about politicians all you want. Nobody cares.