The subheading of the proposal is, not surprisingly, "laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse". Nowadays it seems that every privacy-demolishing law that is proposed is a some form of "Think of the children" [0].
The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
101–110 of 425 posts
Re: The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
#102Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unless you can actually address what I wrote, explain why it is a "really dumb thing to say", I'll chalk that up to you being bewildered and terrified by the truth in what I say. That's okay, many people are completely subservient to authority, dependent on the government, want to be ruled and protected. I pass no moral judgement in my comment, merely explain why the EU is desperate to surveil their own citizens.
Hazarding a guess: the 'really dumb thing' is portraying democratic government as a distinct, foreign, hostile, and alien entity that any sane and morally upstanding person would minimize their interaction with, barely giving theirs 'unto Caesar' and getting away as quickly as possible. It teaches and reinforces apathy and learned helplessness when it comes to effecting change on matters of public policy. Ultimately,…
It's entirely healthy, and necessary, to treat government as an extremely dangerous necessity that requires constant attention to make sure it doesn't overstep.
Re: The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
#103Why every 12 months the European Commission comes up with a total dumb and authoritarian proposal and we have to actively fight it? It’s just tiring
Who elected those guys anyway? I sure never had the chance to vote for any of them. I'd be more fine with that if they only regulated narrowly defined inter-state issues in the EU. But stuff like this... There's no mandate. And there's no reason this couldn't be done locally in every member state where the population wants that.
I don't know where you are from but in my country I never voted for the President of Republic. I can't: the President is elected by the Parliament, which I vote for. I also never voted for the Prime Minister. I can't: it's appointed by the President. Despite currently being the leader of the largest party, her closest predecessors have not been the leaders of the largest party since 10 years ago. Actually the President can appoint anybody, there are not even rules about citizenship, place of residence or being elected. The previous three Prime Ministers were not elected by anyone. By the way, a government is still government even if it does not have a majority support in Parliament. It will have a hard life doing anything but technically that's not a problem.
In the EU we have the Parliament, which is elected by the people, the Council which is composed by Prime Ministers, Presidents, whoever rules each country and the Commission, which is proposed by the Council and elected by the Parliament. Not so different from what I see in my country.
Re: The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
#104Why every 12 months the European Commission comes up with a total dumb and authoritarian proposal and we have to actively fight it? It’s just tiring
[dead]
Re: The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
#105I haven’t read the post. Don’t tell me, it’s to “protect the children”, the excuse under which all draconian citizen monitoring laws are introduced.
Indeed. Subheading of the proposal is "laying down rules to prevent and combat child sexual abuse".
Re: The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
#106Earlier quoted context omitted.
Any institution's primary objective is to secure it's own power (the second is to expand those powers). It's as true for governments as it is for corporations, religions, and even the home gardening club.
Sounds like good argument for competition. I haven't heard of a case where a garden club expanded it's power enough to prevent members from leaving and establishing their own.
Garden clubs usually don't have police and armies. They have to bend to powers that do have them, usually the judiciary system, which can summon police. A garden club with police and an army doesn't have to bend to anyone and might force members not to leave.
Re: The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
#107This is so awful that it strikes me as likely being a door-in-the-face[1] proposal designed to make a more 'reasonable' proposal that is still vile on its own merits seem palatable. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Door-in-the-face_technique
Don't you think it'd be better to ratify the most vile proposal while the ideals of freedom still have majority reign? To create a fiasco so enduring it won't soon be forgotten? And before tools of mass manipulation become any more technologically sophisticated? If I'm reading [1] correctly, we're just picking up momentum down a decades-long slippery slope. 1. https://freedomhouse.org/sites/default/files/2022-02/FIW_…
I expect initially only those who are unpopular and unlikely to be defended by the public will be prosecuted. Then over time more political enemies (probably starting with "trans women aren't women" activists) will be prosecuted and the slow slide begins...
Re: The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
#108Suggested alternative: The "End Political Corruption Proposal" "Given that political corruption is rife in European countries, with great detriments to the healthy function of government, all politicians in positions where they may be engaging in corrupt behavior must submit to 24-7 audio and video surveillance, which will be piped over public platforms for crowdsourcing of corruption detection. All personal communic…
It would be a start to do away with diplomatic immunity.
Re: The chat control proposal does not belong in democratic societies
#109Why every 12 months the European Commission comes up with a total dumb and authoritarian proposal and we have to actively fight it? It’s just tiring
Every society has its petty bureaucrats and mean nannies, and in a democracy, they can't always get what they want.
So they migrate to non-democratic sections of the political sphere to assert themselves, and EC is one of those. The EU has a significant "democratic deficit" as a whole, too much indirection between people and the ruling Eurocrat class.