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586 points prawn | 1 comments | | HN request time: 0.212s | source
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nathanvanfleet ◴[] No.14503161[source]
The Lives of Others, which takes place in East Germany and includes a typewriter which is not registered with the government; was one of the best movies I've seen in a long time. And it's ultimately the live we'll live as tracking technologies continue to get better.
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cm2187 ◴[] No.14504380[source]
When we start evoking the Stasi in a discussion about this surveillance, it always feels a bit like a Godwin point. But the reality is that all of this surveillance is exactly what the Stasi used to do and what the west was fighting the communist block for. If I had told people in the 80s that shortly in all western countries, all communications will be monitored, it will have become illegal to have any discussion that the government cannot eardrop on, the state will be compiling a file on every of its citizens and want to have a list of every book and article every citizen reads, they would have thought that the russians invaded us.
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1. gjjrfcbugxbhf ◴[] No.14505002[source]
Western surveillance has surpassed stasi surveillance in quality and scope. The difference at the moment is in intent. But this is subject to political winds.