61–70 of 116 posts
(Related: http://xkcd.com/1494/)
What happened in the last few years to allow our civil rights in the most forward thinking countries to unravel so easily? And why do citizens not care? How is it possible that all countries have elected such a group of corrupt, nearsighted politicians to the point where freedom is an inconvenience over them consolidating practically dictatorial power? And again, why does no one care?
It is happening at a pace that doesn't force people to think about it. If something big and bad happens suddenly, then people are forced to notice. But if the same big and bad thing happens slowly, one step at a time, most people don't notice. And those who notice are aren't able to do much as they are in a minority. Also, many people are more idealistic in their youth - before they have families, careers etc and bef…
Sure, we understand why people are going along with it quite well at this point, but who and what are behind the push to remove civil liberties is the more interesting component to this issue in my mind.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is happening at a pace that doesn't force people to think about it. If something big and bad happens suddenly, then people are forced to notice. But if the same big and bad thing happens slowly, one step at a time, most people don't notice. And those who notice are aren't able to do much as they are in a minority. Also, many people are more idealistic in their youth - before they have families, careers etc and bef…
I think you're correct in everything you've written, but I guess I go back to OP's question "why is this happening" and focus on who is driving this and why? Sure, we understand why people are going along with it quite well at this point, but who and what are behind the push to remove civil liberties is the more interesting component to this issue in my mind.
If anyone has any resource on this topic, please post - this (and environment) might very well be the most important issues of our time.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It is happening at a pace that doesn't force people to think about it. If something big and bad happens suddenly, then people are forced to notice. But if the same big and bad thing happens slowly, one step at a time, most people don't notice. And those who notice are aren't able to do much as they are in a minority. Also, many people are more idealistic in their youth - before they have families, careers etc and bef…
I think you're correct in everything you've written, but I guess I go back to OP's question "why is this happening" and focus on who is driving this and why? Sure, we understand why people are going along with it quite well at this point, but who and what are behind the push to remove civil liberties is the more interesting component to this issue in my mind.
The article linked in the article about how to dodge these new laws has some particularly asinine advice: http://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2015/03/australian-govern... The guy says "just use skype" because then the telco doesn't know who you're calling, just that you called skype. Sure, because there's NO POSSIBLE WAY for Skype to get a subpoena, right?
As we see the warrant canary idea institutionalized - with companies like Apple and Twitter adopting them to a certain degree, and cataloguing them on sites like canary watch[1] we are falling down a rabbit hole of speech about speech (and speech about speech about speech, etc.).
The real issue is NSLs and other secret warrants. These are older than you might think. Look up PRTT (pen register trap and trace, for telephones, which can be served with a gag order) or the All Writs Act. This is what we need to be working against, and this is what falls to the background as we find new and better ways to run our warrant canaries.
I am guilty of this.[2]
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We've had bombs in London Did they react this way during the Troubles? I don't think they did. I was in London in '92 and there was a bomb threat called in at the tube station one stop over. It delayed the train for a bit, but that was it and everyone continued on like normal. This time the US freaks out because the world came to their doorstep and they flip out because they have no idea how to handle it. The leade…
This technique was first theorized and practiced by CIA in Europe (and likely KGB elsewhere) during the Cold War. In Italy they called it "Tension Strategy", as in "keeping people tense" with fear of attacks and bombs so they will allow the government to get and maintain illiberal powers or even allow a Chilean-style coup d'état. During the Troubles, the UK had its fair share of "freaking out", banning public bins (o…
They were banned in train stations and other similar areas, for the fairly sensible reason that they'd been used to hide bombs in those locations in the past.
Does anyone have a nice SVG image of a canary? Or it illegal to put that on a website?
Not sure why were downvoted here. It does seem that there is some plausible deniability about having a picture on your website that may or may not have anything to do with warrants that could still convey information to those looking for it.
What happened in the last few years to allow our civil rights in the most forward thinking countries to unravel so easily? And why do citizens not care? How is it possible that all countries have elected such a group of corrupt, nearsighted politicians to the point where freedom is an inconvenience over them consolidating practically dictatorial power? And again, why does no one care?
It's hard for the public to care when there is no concrete evidence of harm. The government knows this and is working hard to make sure that any harm done by mass surveillance is hidden using parallel construction. What is an interesting and useful game is to imagine a scenario which would trigger massive public outrage over the use of mass surveillance. What would really drive the point home that this is a truly dan…
If the abuses of Hoover's FBI weren't enough to make the American people (and especially their Congressional representatives) say "Never again," nothing will. I'm sure Australians can point to similar abuses of government power that are not considered a problem going forward, because, hey, we're all progressives here, right?
People are funny. We won't build nuke plants on the grounds that there is a small but finite chance of something going wrong and killing a lot of people, but we'll cheerfully let our politicians put the mechanisms of 1984 into place for our "safety." And we don't even get electricity in return.