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267 points giuliomagnifico | 14 comments | | HN request time: 0.402s | source | bottom
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whatshisface ◴[] No.43517781[source]
One of the important things to watch for is the linkup of the papers please people with the internet scanners. Right now they seem to be limited to seizing your personal effects, but that is a matter of coordination between departments of the government. If there are laws against it, they are adjacent to other laws which were ignored even in previous years. Once that occurs the use of professional use devices will not make the crossing safe.
replies(2): >>43517958 #>>43518330 #
1. FredPret ◴[] No.43517958[source]
Sounds like a social credit score derived from your entire online identity.

I hope that picture of reality stays in Black Mirror.

It would represent a huge decline in personal liberty in the West so I’m betting it will be so unpopular as to be impossible, especially as older voters are replaced by digital natives who are aware of the problem.

replies(5): >>43518111 #>>43518175 #>>43518178 #>>43518679 #>>43522417 #
2. tdeck ◴[] No.43518111[source]
> I’m betting it will be so unpopular as to be impossible

People have said the same thing about gutting Social Security, but it seems like that's on the chopping block right now unfortunately.

replies(1): >>43518201 #
3. tdb7893 ◴[] No.43518175[source]
I think we're seeing right now that at least a decent fraction (even if it's not half) would be for it as long as it targets the right people. I think it's a mistake to think people in general are very tied to specific civil liberties for other people.
replies(1): >>43519988 #
4. thrance ◴[] No.43518178[source]
Everything can be made popular through the right wing propaganda pipeline, given enough times. Republicans are now happy to see medicaid and medicare taken away, tariffs imposed on everything they buy...
replies(1): >>43518461 #
5. FredPret ◴[] No.43518201[source]
Social Security is very popular but hasn’t been baked into the Western soul for the past 1-2k years like the idea of personal agency & liberty has.

In addition, SS requires a budget so is more open to controversy. Respecting individuals is free; violating their rights requires a budget as well.

replies(2): >>43518636 #>>43518972 #
6. tdeck ◴[] No.43518461[source]
Indeed, in 5 years we'll have centrist "thought leaders" telling us that maybe we should give up on women's suffrage because it's a losing issue.
replies(1): >>43520348 #
7. Avshalom ◴[] No.43518636{3}[source]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atlantic_slave_trade Whose personal agency and liberty?
replies(1): >>43519153 #
8. netsharc ◴[] No.43518679[source]
Your comment assumes the sanctity of elections...

How much can I win betting the 2026 or 2028 elections will look more Russia-like (or Turkey-like) vs. an election that could be called "free and fair"?

9. gessha ◴[] No.43518972{3}[source]
> personal agency & liberty

Those two were very suppressed under monarchy and the Christian religion. It wasn’t until modern secularism that those two truly blossomed.

replies(1): >>43519194 #
10. FredPret ◴[] No.43519153{4}[source]
Slavery was always widespread; it was Westerners who saw the moral inconsistency between their self-image and owning slaves, and then fought wars with one another and others to end it globally.

The journey from serfdom to modern human rights was a long one, but it had a clear upward trend.

11. FredPret ◴[] No.43519194{4}[source]
Even so there were clear steps in the right direction.

Monarchs grew steadily more circumscribed from a de jure point of view. Eventually they became constitutional monarchs, then mere figureheads. Their de facto power also went from absolute steadily downward.

The same trend happened with Christianity: at one time the Pope was so powerful, he broke up the Holy Roman Empire. But there were many reformations, revolutions, Protestantism.

There's a clear trend of decentralization across the entire West, spanning a thousand years - because of individuals insisting on what we now call their inalienable human rights.

12. FredPret ◴[] No.43519988[source]
This Far Side Gallery comes to mind: https://www.pinterest.com/pin/57843176441267398/

Any large slice of humanity will contain lots of jerks; but our progress over the past couple of thousand years has been too widespread and consistent for me to think that they'll hold us back permanently.

13. collingreen ◴[] No.43520348{3}[source]
Only 5 years? Women voting seems like an easy segue from "DEI policy" or from "politics are so ugly now we need to protect the women from it".

I won't be surprised if we see some calls to have voting _by household_ come back, potentially under the (nonsense) guise of fighting rigged elections.

14. AlecSchueler ◴[] No.43522417[source]
> I hope that picture of reality stays in Black Mirror.

Hasn't the Secretary of State said that several hundred people have already been targeted this way? This picture of reality is already real life for many people, their colleagues and their families.