Almost the entire western world is going authoritarian. Very worrying trend. It has to be stopped.
this post was submitted on 06 Aug 2025
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Privacy
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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.
No it won't stop it. Blood and violence is needed but we are sheep.
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".
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.
I do agree. But calling the UK Orwellian is kind of funny, given Orwell's 1984 is largely, if not mostly, based on the UK:
- Like Winston, Orwell worked in the UK as a war propagandist, and lamented that he constantly had to lie and censor facts, but thought it worth it to defeat the Nazis.
- The 'ministries' were entirely based on the UK's, especially e.g. the 'Ministry of Defense' actually being a ministry of war.
- Orwell complained that the UK secret police constantly opened all his letters because he was a commie.
- Room 101 and the Ministry of Truth is basically just satire of the BBC.
As well as cultural changes in the 80s-90s, I think people don't quite realise how much the internet 'escaped' the grasp of governments for the past few decades. By constantly banging the drum of "what about the children D:", governments are finally just catching up to where we used to be.
Surpassing where we used to be in that regard as in the mean time they have been busy locking down controls over other facets of society.
Old enough to remember how Europeans smugly thought that they lived in some sort of an enlightened and free society.
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We are living in Orwellian society, it's just the news catching up with reality.
The news has been trying to obfuscate this awareness for as long as possible.
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I’m quite curious to see how it will end in the UK with the porn filters because the people don’t seem to be inclined to use their IDs online, the system is brittle, and non-porn websites are being blocked too.
As a Brit who has seen the UK government's ill thought through and unworkable attempts at police state bullshit go through the process a few times now, I'm going to predict: VPN use goes up massively, the government starts talking about banning VPNs without considering that this would break half the internet, then some wealthy business donor has a quiet word to them because businesses need VPNs to function, but they can't publicly back down because they already called everyone who opposed it a pedo. So they pick one or two VPN companies (whichever ones have the most foreign-sounding names), have the tabloids run a propaganda campaign about how evil they are, then ban them even though they aren't based in the UK and it makes no difference to anything, then they'll claim they won and the laws will stay on the books forever but nobody will bother to enforce them and everything will carry on as before.
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Sign ups for Swiss VPN providers from the UK are up massively, nobody will use their ID for porn.
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I am not aware of any western country that isn't a police state.
The reason the police state gets worse and worse is simply that our glouriouss western countries shift closer and closer to fascism every day.
Unfortunately that doesn't only impact privacy but also stuff like state repression or presence of state thugs.
To quote very smart people:
OOONEEE SOLLUTION
REEEVOLUTION
I hope for a revolution, but as for my country (Italy), too many people have been brainwashed by mainstream media's pro-European and Atlanticist propaganda. We call them "euroinomani" ("euro "drug" addicts")
Oh yeah, I should post about my arrest
Sounds like there’s a story waiting to be unleashed. Please continue.
It's a post in itself and I only got about half of it down before work, so I'll drop a link here after I finish it tonight.
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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'
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The UK would be one if anyone could be bothered to run it properly.
They're looking to install Nigel Farage as their prime minister. The island is derelict.
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.
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.
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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
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. ✌🏻
I'm the guy that gets offended on behalf of what ever I want.
and it’s heading in a troubling direction
I'd say it's heading in an orwellian direction...
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Orwell never could have imagined society as it exists currently.
The EU is using genocide censorship as an excuse to abort all "freedom" laws. A hillarious twist.
As an American it's nice to see were not the only ones in a complete downward spiral.
EDIT: wild that there are users pretending to be butthurt by this obviously joke comment so they can farm upvotes from the tens of users on Lemmy
As an American, no it's not nice. Why would I want more of this shit elsewhere?
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Nice? I wish it was just the US so getting to another country would make it safe for us. This is awful.
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how will this "client side scanning" be implemented?
it's, not only worrying, but very confusing.
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…
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