Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism • Hacker News Board

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#231

Post by sershe » Fri, Dec 17, 2021, 2:04 PM UTC

darcys22 wrote: post #181

azth wrote: post #164

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The narrative is that the Australian government is enforcing authoritarian lockdowns and mandates on its population.

Melbourne here, its not that bad. The narrative is mostly being spun but the anti-lockdown parties in the USA trying to push their own agenda.

Lives for most people under authoritarian regimes is "not that bad". That is from personal experience living in Russia, my life was pretty great, as far as I can tell from coworkers/visits to China it's similar there.

And they (the governments, and many if not most citizens) will tell you that police coming to somebody's home after an online post about organizing a protest against government policies, and such, are for greater good and anyone who says otherwise is a foreign agent "spinning a narrative". Even Russia didn't prevent people from leaving, impose internal borders, or arrest people for going to a park, as far as I know :)

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#232

Post by yesenadam » Sun, Dec 19, 2021, 4:39 AM UTC

sershe wrote: post #231

darcys22 wrote: post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Melbourne here, its not that bad. The narrative is mostly being spun but the anti-lockdown parties in the USA trying to push their own agenda.

Lives for most people under authoritarian regimes is "not that bad". That is from personal experience living in Russia, my life was pretty great, as far as I can tell from coworkers/visits to China it's similar there. And they (the governments, and many if not most citizens) will tell you that police coming to somebody's home after an online post about organizing a protest against government policies, and such, are f…

What an absurd comment. Really, you are implying Australia has an "authoritarian regime"?

> Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of a strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting.

Uh... 100% no, no, no, no and no. I'm not saying at all that I like our present government - our last few have been increasingly pathetic, from what I've heard, but...let's keep it slightly real, thanks.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarianism

Re: Nobel Peace laureates blast tech giants and warn against rising authoritarianism

#233

Post by sershe » Thu, Dec 23, 2021, 9:07 PM UTC

yesenadam wrote: post #232

sershe wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Lives for most people under authoritarian regimes is "not that bad". That is from personal experience living in Russia, my life was pretty great, as far as I can tell from coworkers/visits to China it's similar there. And they (the governments, and many if not most citizens) will tell you that police coming to somebody's home after an online post about organizing a protest against government policies, and such, are f…

What an absurd comment. Really, you are implying Australia has an "authoritarian regime"? > Authoritarianism is a form of government characterized by the rejection of political plurality, the use of a strong central power to preserve the political status quo, and reductions in the rule of law, separation of powers, and democratic voting. Uh... 100% no, no, no, no and no. I'm not saying at all that I like our present…

It's a spectrum, not a boolean flag. There were many examples, my favorite was when someone wanted to organize a protest against lockdowns on Facebook, and cops came into their home. That is an action of an extremely authoritarian government. In the article I guess it falls under suppressing civil liberties and antiregime activities. Vaguely, the more of such actions a government can perform/ performs (or cannot/refrains from performing) the more (less) authoritarian it is... The fact that the majority agrees they are justified has no bearing on that whatsoever. Democracy and liberty only tend to correlate, they are not the same thing, especially recently.