Every day we get closer to an Orwellian society. The United Kingdom may already be one.

  • AntiOutsideAktion@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    Is this thread about the rising fascist movements? Oh…

    Is it about the refugees from their colonies they drown in the Mediterranean? Oh…

    Well is it about the pivot from renewables and nuclear to oil and gas? Wh… well what is…

    Oh. This is a thread about your online treats.

    #1 on lemmy ‘top in last 12 hours’

    • ReversalHatchery@beehaw.org
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      4 months ago

      you are saying that as if all (or any) of those would have started to be a problem just in the last 12 hours…

      and this is not about “online treats”, but online threats. It’s not just netflix, amazon and other silly unnecessary things, it’s everything, including every forum where people can organize and discuss things, fucking youtube with their tons of knowledge based content, …

      but sure! we have 4 other problems, count climate change too, that’s 5, we really should just ignore this one because it’s literally meaningless!

  • lerba@piefed.social
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    4 months ago

    I feel like at least in Germany privacy matters are alive and kicking thanks to GDPR / DSGVO

    • ExcessShiv@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      German EU politicians are also pushing the chat control BS, it seems like it is only a matter of time until these psychos slip these invasive laws through.

      • lerba@piefed.social
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        4 months ago

        What do you mean with chat control BS? Care to share a link?

        That being said, there are a lot of worrying politicians out there.

      • hierkoinos@lemmy.mlOP
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        4 months ago

        Merz’s government should be overthrown just for the fact that that semi-human turd used to be a manager at BlackRock

      • Droggelbecher@lemmy.world
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        4 months ago

        I’m noticing a pattern on Lemmy for every time someone makes a general criticism of the EU, the West ™, Europe etc there’s someone in the comments specifically mentioning how Germany is good, actually, regardless of whether Germany was explicitly mentioned or whether it’s actually true that Germany is better than other places in the topic at hand. In all likelihood it’s just that there’s more Germans on Lemmy than people from smaller countries, but it’s starting to feel like some weird out of place patriotism is on the rise or something.

        • VonReposti@feddit.dk
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          4 months ago

          but it’s starting to feel like some weird out of place patriotism is on the rise or something.

          Oh no, not again… I’ll go ahead and paint my Danish flag white in preperation of what’s to come.

      • lerba@piefed.social
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        4 months ago

        I don’t understand what your article has to do with privacy. I understood that is the framework of this conversation. Yes, there’s a lot of scary rightwing policing in Germany, but can we stay on topic?

    • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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      4 months ago

      You literally have to provide identification when buying a SIM card for a mobile phone in Germany and it all gets registered.

      Most of Europe doesn’t have any such thing and even the UK with all it’s authoritarian overreach doesn’t have this.

      There is literally no other use for this other than for the state to be to know who calls who.

      Germany is a lot more “papers please” than most of Europe in my personal experience.

      • lerba@piefed.social
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        4 months ago

        Yeah I think it’s very subjective and this one anedcote is just that.

        In Germany cash is preferred in most places, and that makes tracking payments difficult. This is not the case in most other european countries. That’s an another anecdote for you.

        • Aceticon@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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          4 months ago

          That’s a “people” preference.

          Mandatory registration of who buys a SIM card is a “government” preference.

          My point is that in Germany the Legislation favors privacy less than in other countries.

          Your point seems to be that in Germany people favor privacy more than in other countries.

          I made the point be about legislation because you mentioned GDPR / DSGVO, plus this post is about what governments are shoving down people’s throats when it comes to surveillance. I don’t expect that most people in Europe actually want governments snooping on their chats.

          Still, it’s good to know that in Germany the people themselves favor privacy, even if so far they’ve been less successful at avoiding governmental overreach on surveillance than people in many other European nations (though compared with, say, Britain, Germany is veritable paradise in terms of state surveillance of the civil society).

          • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            The distinction with China is in actual human rights like people being able to afford housing, food, and education. People not having to worry about losing their job and ending up on the street or being able to retire in dignity.

      • The Menemen@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        No one in those countries believes that they live in a free, enlightened society…

        But the west always portrayed otself in such a light… Now everyone knows their politics are just as ugly as Chinas, Irans or Russias politics.

        • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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          4 months ago

          I don’t see anyone in US LARPing freedom bullshit since at least covid lol

          Well besides regime whores on tv… But that’s a different story

          But in us unlike china or russia, shit posters don’t get charges or at least not nearly as much for saying stupid shit online. People in russia peope get prison for being anti war.

          • Fiery@lemmy.dbzer0.com
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            4 months ago

            A friend of mine travelled to China, to talk about politics with locals they used his phone because they were afraid of their govt listening in. So yeah maybe the EU/US ain’t so bad.

              • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmy.ml
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                4 months ago

                My comment likewise touches on the fact that people living under western regimes are disappeared in regular course of business. In fact, there’s far more evidence for people disappearing without any reasonable grounds in the west than there are in China.

                • sunzu2@thebrainbin.org
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                  4 months ago

                  If this was true, half of Lemmy would be in Gitmo already

                  Does china have a place like reddit or fediverse?

                  Link it up!

  • TheLeadenSea@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Not even close to the horrors of an Orwellian society and saying it is is an insult to the characters in those books. It isn’t great though, and it’s heading in a troubling direction

    • 0x0@lemmy.zip
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      4 months ago

      and it’s heading in a troubling direction

      I’d say it’s heading in an orwellian direction…

    • Dr. Unabart@sh.itjust.works
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      4 months ago

      I think the characters in the book will forgive as that’s a work of fiction and they are not real. That’s like saying I insulted Bugs Bunny for having big teeth. We’ll get through this calamity. ✌🏻

  • banazir@lemmy.ml
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    4 months ago

    From the fact Britain produced Orwell, Huxley’s Brave New World, and Alan Moore’s V for Vendetta, I figure the UK has always been some shade of “Orwellian”.

    • ChicoSuave@lemmy.world
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      4 months ago

      Historically, the UK has always been very self assured in their goals and never looked for outside input while disregarding the people that they were upending. Anyone who wasn’t helping them was viewed as an enemy to be controlled, oppressed , or destroyed. If that isn’t a non-political explanation of rightwing authoritarianism, I’m not sure what is.

    • banazir@lemmy.ml
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      4 months ago

      They’re looking to install Nigel Farage as their prime minister. The island is derelict.

      • Tangentism@lemmy.ml
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        4 months ago

        Not quite.

        Farage keeps running around saying “Pick me! Pick me!” and the press keep asking “Is farage a viable candidate?” while not offering the same credence to anyone else.

        The British public are “We’re fucking sick of this bollocks from the establishment” and a lot of them are falling for the privately educated ex city trader Farages nonsense that he’s a “man of the people” because all the centrist parties are saying “aren’t immigrants awful?” in an attempt to distract from their own incompetence and quite frankly, the left is 10 years behind in offering a coherent alternative to all the bullshit.

        • Zak@lemmy.world
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          4 months ago

          a lot of them are falling for the privately educated ex city trader Farages nonsense that he’s a “man of the people”

          This parallels Trump, but I think it’s mostly not that people are really fooled into believing these wealthy politicians are just like them. I think the attraction is more that the current system isn’t working for a lot of people and hasn’t been for a long time. Someone who offers to tear it down can attract a large following even if they don’t have a good proposal for what to replace it with.

          It took a while for me to see that because I find the racist and nationalist beliefs of the likes of Trump, Farage, and the AFD so appalling it’s hard to see anything else.

          • Tangentism@lemmy.ml
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            4 months ago

            Definitely, it’s them playing stupid so centrist liberals will mock them because they can’t help themselves and they use that to say to the genpop “look, I’m just like you and these sneering elites are laughing at me, and by extension you”

            I think the attraction is more that the current system isn’t working for a lot of people and hasn’t been for a long time.

            Exactly. They play the outsider who has the balls but not embroiled in the quagmire, to come and “drain the swamp”

            The perverse hilarity of trump saying this is that he is the 1%, he is the trust fund kid that had everything handed to him on a platter. He literally is the swamp (a corrupt child rapist)

            Farage in the UK went to one of the top schools (Dulwich college) where he was disciplined for singing Hitler youth songs. He got a job in the city through his dad as a commodities broker before going into (disrupting) politics and people seem to believe his shit when he acts like he’s one of the common folk!

            People need their heads banging together falling for that shit!

    • DavidGarcia@feddit.nl
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      4 months ago

      the only thing that can really stop it IMO is mainstreaming decentralized social media and messaging services.

      You’d need to effectively replace Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, Whatsapp etc… The only thing that totally keeps us from 1984 is that all these platforms for now have decided to be relatively free and impartial (compared to how bad it could be). But that could change at any time if the powers that be decide to on a whim. They could completely ban all privacy, pacificsm or any kind of political opposition tomorrow.

      • Auli@lemmy.ca
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        4 months ago

        No it won’t stop it. Blood and violence is needed but we are sheep.

  • vane@lemmy.world
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    4 months ago

    We are living in Orwellian society, it’s just the news catching up with reality.

  • inna@lemmings.world
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    4 months ago

    For the age verification is it possible to sign a petition? I think is not too late to join forces… or anything but not letting them go further… as of the chat control probably only contacting the representatives. I really hope lawyers and businessmen try to fight it…

  • lemming@sh.itjust.works
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    4 months ago

    Have you already written to your members of parliament about chat control, and possibly other matters? Seriously, do it. There is very little you can do, but this might actually help. Slightly. Maybe.