From age and ID restrictions on the Internet, to charging rappers with “terrorism,” the U.K. is demolishing the most basic civil liberties. If we let them, U.S. leaders may be close behind.
I think the US will be fine as long as we don’t repeatedly elect some kind of cabal of pedophile authoritarians.
Irony is truly lost on this platform
I feel like that was the entire intent of the comment you are replying to
It definitely was, please see my other comment below somewheres
Just what the fuck is this timeline? I was born in Russia and spent a good chunk of my life basically idolizing USA, UK, EU, other European countries, English-first countries, etc.
By the time I had the language and professional skills to try and migrate into a probably really good life, suddenly there’s a rise of authoritarianism, loss of privacy, rollback to the political right and intolerance and hatred and whatever.
There’s still a long way for these nations to go before things are as bad as here, but the differences still are dwindling at an alarming rate and I often find myself wondering if it’s gonna be worth the effort if I want to eventually move to someplace that still respects privacy and freedom and is sensible about the Internet and digital technologies.
There’s still a lot of perks from knowing English as well as I do, but at this point, I think I’d have to learn German or Swedish or some other northern EU language if I ever make up my mind.
And by the time I’m ready, these countries will roll out some bullshit, too, right?
And then there’s Visa and MasterCard telling you what you can and can’t purchase because some conservative cesspool wrote some emails - but gamers’ emails are ignored…
It’s all so demoralising. I miss looking forward to the future with hope and excitement for things.
what’s happening is our current system right now is in the process of failing. it’s dying, it didn’t work and it can no longer sustain itself. Someone once said something along the lines of “When the current system fails, the next one will consist of whatever ideas are left”
So what ideas are left? the ideas of the far right, just like far right ideas are ALWAYS left when a system is about to die. So all these governments, all these wealthy individuals, all these people that have the most to gain are are going start backing the new up coming system. We’re seeing it in real time.
But this has happened time and time again. We’re a collectively dumb species and love watching repeats. it’s always the same song and dance “well lets go this way, sure it didn’t work out last time but I don’t believe it’ll happen to us THIS time”.
So it’s not so much “what the fuck is this timeline” but rather “well it’s our generations turn for bullshit”. And it always skips a generation. So the boomers didn’t experience it, but their parents did, and now it’s our turn. Hopefully our children or our Kids children will be smarter than boomers but…we as humans sure do love watching reruns.
And then there’s Visa and MasterCard telling you what you can and can’t purchase because some conservative cesspool wrote some emails
They didn’t just write emails, they actually picked up the phone and called them, non stop. They made it into a problem that couldn’t be ignored. Gamers haven’t done that, unfortunately.
As someone still in Russia, a bit of the same.
That is, I expected things to get worse, but not “avalanche of shit, cockroaches and rat bones” levels of worse.
Except the idolization part started receding much earlier, when I actually learned English well enough to understand that these are very intolerant societies. Say, where in Russia people disagreeing with you on some key matters would look at you like a fool or just decide to stop this conversation so that neither of you would offend the other, in English-speaking countries, it seems, there was simply no way to survive outside of some echo chamber and God forbid you find none to fit into. But that was like 10-15 years ago, now, of course, in Russia you can get jailed or strongly fined for words.
But I thought there’s some deeper wisdom and in those harsher societies people are also somehow better capable to maintain their common freedom and dignity yadda-yadda. In fact that’s not what I see.
As a bit of gloating - at least now the “why are you not all revolting against Putin” Western types can be answered with their own regrettable example instead of common sense and logic, these are fine, but an example is more efficient.
There’s always Canada, a similarly large yet sparsely populated land with awful winters and bad food, you’ll fit right in.
Excuse me, bad food? I’ll have you know we have at least 10 flavors of poutine truck at every public event
It seems that our leaders idolize Russia back. 🤣
It’s all about this,
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dark_Enlightenment
Apparently, Putin’s regime is seen as an example for our leaders to follow.
P.S.: Without the direct threat that the communist USSR posed to Western elites, social-democracy faded away as the rich became more and more emboldened.
Dear christ, is there anything Russia isn’t responsible for? Apparently we’re all puppets in the West, easily hypnotized by gifs generated on washing machine CPUs, and conveniently it’s never our own making.
Please seek therapy. This “Russia Russia Russia” thing is McCarthyist hysteria on steroids.
You’re idolizing Russia as much if you think they’re somehow behind everything you don’t understand or like.
What’s the difference between your elaborate near-psychotic take and any other conspiracy theory?
Russia Russia Russia. Jesus motherfucking tapdancing Christ on a rubber crutch.
I dropped a plate this morning, Russiaaaaaaaaarrrrrgh!!!
Read again. 🙄 Read again and if you still think I’m blaming Russia in the previous comment, read again until you understand what I said.
Well, UK partially aside, your country is the root cause of all the shit happening here. Specifically Putin el Puto.
Well, not so much “cause” as pouring gasoline on what was a light smolder.
You’re shifting way too much blame on Russia. Our democracies are failing by themselves, because of complacent politicians who care more about their career and being elected than doing good for their countries. Politicians who learned they don’t have to apply their promises and everything will turn out fine. Voters got pissed and fell for far right lies and propaganda.
It turned into a roaring fire by itself. Putin just made sure the fire doors don’t shut.
Well, it is one big process.
Hard to trace the power which allowed for all those slow processes of subversion to happen, but a lot of it stems ultimately from the USSR’s breakup and those who managed to make profit on it.
Western countries’ MIC’s which no more had to prepare for real war, so same big funding, but less accountability. Western politicians making profit on reducing their militaries - it’s a profitable process of selling properties and scrapping tech and such. Western advisors in ex-USSR helping their new mafia elites. Western businesses who first managed to secure some agreements to do business in ex-USSR.
Then - the tech sector, via plenty of qualified labor from ex-USSR moving to USA and other western countries. Cheap fossil fuels sold by Russia to EU countries, which became a major factor in their economies in the 90s and 00s.
Politicians in this were very notably not complacent, just looking out for themselves and noticing opportunities for themselves.
Also a lot happened just due to technical progress and lack of macro-level competition. Soviet system notably had deadlocks because interested parties couldn’t agree to one countrywide system. Suppose USSR somehow managed to survive till now, with its collegial and totalitarian-bureaucratic, but not mafia-style, government. Then total surveillance being introduced in the West now and long ago in China wouldn’t be successfully implemented in the USSR, for the similar reasons EU countries want to have their own surveillance, but not US surveillance over their citizens. In USSR it would be between ministries and factions not willing to be controlled by others. So in USSR there’d likely be some status quo.
I mean, it’s purely a hypothesis, it already imploded and there’s nothing more to say about this. Just - such things as now would sometimes happen during the Cold War too, but having a big totalitarian state as a counterweight helped a lot. Like an example of what will happen if this is allowed, and like an alternative (if we are going to have totalitarianism, then let’s at least have the red workers-and-peasants kind), and like a real threat in case of weakening of western nations.
So one can imagine that USSR’s breakup did lead in many ways to what we have now. At the same time had it not happened, then maybe on my side of the screen everything would already be surveilled (or maybe it is).
Blaming Russia for the inadequacies of much more powerful nations like the US is pretty ignorant, imo.
Of course those countries had issues - including the USA.
But it’s Russia that interfered enough to put the far right in those countries in power. Like I said, they poured gasoline on what was already a fire
This is absolutely insane. Russia is NOT the root cause of anything bad happening in the United States. Pull your head out of your ass.
I’m in Finland. I’m also referencing the EU member countries, not just the USA. A lot of the issues here are literally due to Russia.
Edit: Trump and Republican ties to Russia are definitely also a thing.
A few stolen elections in a row were approved by US politicians and various European politicians almost unanimously, because of “supporting Yeltsin against reaction”, and “if not this imperfect democracy, then Commies or neo-Nazis”, and “but we’re having a reboot of relations”, and then with almost open realpoliticking shit about how Putin is convenient to do business with, and if there’s a change of regime, it won’t be as easy.
So I would argue about root causes a lot. Especially since the root cause would be Western interference during USSR’s breakup, first aimed at preserving USSR, then after that failing aimed at preserving Russia as 1) some sort of superpower, 2) authoritarian regime led by Yeltsin’s crowd.
It doesn’t even matter that they likely didn’t know what they were doing, likely led by Tom Clancy books style idiotic ideas of the dangers and chances in that process, and the main “threat” perceived was some “radical reactionary takeover” leading to someone launching nukes just for the sake of it. It even reads idiotic, but such opinions were said officially, however nuts it was.
EDIT: And also there’s the subject of Ukraine’s nukes. If someone didn’t know, it’s not Russia that pressured Ukraine to get rid of its nukes in favor of Russia. It’s USA. Convenient to have one hegemon in a region, with whom you can deal, except that hegemon might eventually accept the idea that they are the hegemon.
That was lost a while ago, but it’s nice more people are noticing that it’s getting worse.
Pretty much every company that matters decided to go full 1984 censorship and surveillance all at the same time. And the governments are more than happy to play along. UK, US, etc. Pretty much all of “the west”
They are paving the way for feudalism to replace liberal democracies,
Uh, America had free speech? First I’m hearing about it.
With a president meddling in both universities and media free speech, there is no way to seriously say USA has free speech.
But even before these issues freedom of speech was very challenged in USA.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Press_Freedom_Indexthank you random Canadian Lemmy user!
/s
You’re more than welcome!
How many whistleblowers and reporters did Bush and Obama charge with the Espionage Act?
What’s happening in Britain, thought current government was a good one?
Labour is centrist and they desperately want to exert more control. English are sheep, so no one will protest daddy government.
Supposedly centrist. They’re curious whether being populist right wing on some issues will win over Reform UK voters. It’s just that they’re so curious and are doing this so often that they’re well on their way into morphing into a right wing party.
so no one will protest daddy government.
Yea this is a problem…
Could? go publicly criticize the Pedo in chief and watch what happens
The idea that America EVER had free fucking speech is propaganda. There is no such thing, not in the US and not anywhere. Nations have to control their propaganda or they lose their power. Want an example? Just log into your favorite feed-site in another country and look how radically different every post, every comment and every news story is. Our perspective in the US is as cultivated as it is anywhere else.
The only way we would ever have truly free speech in any capacity would be if we had a borderless world, and I don’t see that happening as long as we have money and classes.
Short of some alien species descending and absorbing everyone into a hive-mind, this isn’t going to change for a thousand years at least.
Britain never had free speech and always have been a absolute nanny state. It’s a prime example that government overreach does not result in any safety improvements.
Many people seem to ignore that british legislation is choke full of gag laws and restrictions on pretty fundamental rights.
Yeah why shoild they be able to tell me to wear seatbelts.
I think it’s odd (and pretty terrifying) the U.K. and U.S. have been on such similar and almost coordinated authoritarian tracks over the last few years. It started with a lot of gradual steps and more recently they seem to be ramping things up (which also seems pretty common for authoritarianism/by the time most people notice something weird is happening it’s too late).
Both ramping up A.I. to spy on, and control/micromanage their own civilians while refusing regulations or any public accountability for the A.I. they’re developing.
April 2024: U.S., U.K. Announce Partnership to Safety Test AI Models
Feb 2025: UK and US refuse to sign international AI declaration
May 2025: Brexit’s Failures Could Foreshadow Trump’s. Just Not in the Way You Might Think.
So did people in the 80’s (before internet) have more free speech than now, or less?
Can’t anyone just build their own website and “free speech” all they want?
Private media owners always had control over their property, that isn’t new.
What is this ‘could be’ business?
Hasn’t Britain always been like this? Are people generally upset about this or just a vocal online minority? I mean I would never support something like this but if the people support it well, it’s their will.
Yeah, the younger ones don’t remember all the dystopic shit under Thatcher. Sure analog cameras in every corner isn’t as effective as AI monitoring 24/7, but it’s not like the intention was different.
Don’t you guys cheer ending free speech anytime you are in power? I’m all for you joining the team, but please stop vilifying the people who got there before you.
