Under the slogan ‘Think of the children’, the European Commission tried to introduce total surveillance of all EU citizens. When the scandal was revealed, it turned out that American tech companies and security services had been involved in the bill, generally known as ‘Chat Control’ – and that the whole thing had been directed by completely different interests. Now comes the next attempt. New battering rams have been brought out with the ‘Going Dark’ initiative. But the ambition is the same: to install state spyware on every European cell phone and computers.
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China literally bans opposition and free expression. The Chinese courts are literally just a show for the one single controlling party of China.
Every society puts limits on free expression. Even the most thoroughly indoctrinated liberals are starting to realize why free speech absolutism is a bad idea. The only difference is in the limits on free speech different societies place, and what types of speech are suppressed. It’s pure chauvinism to think that the west got the balance right while everyone else got it wrong. Meanwhile, the number of parties have fuck all to do with anything. It’s whom the parties represent that matters.
I never said the US was perfect. It is far from it.
However, I do think freedom of belief and freedom of speech are very important. You also need some good journalism somewhere in the mix.
I find it kind of concerning that Russia, a large powerful country, is now being run by a man who is set on keeping power and restricting access to information. Russia now has its own Wikipedia that is heavily censored because the government is scared that Russians might start not liking the current government. I don’t know if you are in Russia or somewhere close but I would personally refuse to accept censorship. Using Tor is a must now to find out the truth. Draw your own conclusions and be mindful of bias and blatant propaganda. I find that news sites like the BBC tend to be fairly trustworthy although they are UK left leaning.
I also think “East vs West” is a cold war type settlement shared by leaders in both Russia and the US. In reality the cold war didn’t do much other than cost a lot of time and money. It did jump start space travel.
I am sorry if I am being a bit harsh. It just annoys me at the level of blinders people have. I’m sure I have my own set of blinders.
It’s pretty clear that access to information has very little to do with what the government actually does or whose interests it represents. For example, here’s what a study analyzing many decades of US policy had to conclude
US gives people the right to scream into the void while any tangible freedoms they had have been stripped away long ago. The public has no agency within the political system, and their interests aren’t represented. Everybody knows this, and nobody can do anything about it. The US is an open dictatorship of capital, but you get this intangible free speech that can’t actually be translated into any meaningful action. And when people do try to use their speech to effect change then the government murders them as seen with MLK, Fred Hampton, Assange, and many others.
If you think this is a better model for society than what China is doing, I really don’t know what else to tell you. At least in China the government demonstrably works in the interest of the working majority. I’ll take that over free speech absolutism any day.
In China you can’t even protest without being arrested. I can confidently say I’m glad not to be in China.
Wrong. Article 35 http://www.npc.gov.cn/zgrdw/englishnpc/Constitution/2007-11/15/content_1372964.htm
That’s demonstrably false. People in China protest all the time. The fact that you genuinely believe this shows just how gullible you are falling for the propaganda that your state media like BBC feeds you.
Well I think any limits on free speech are bad
then you should educate yourself on the problem of fascism
Free speech and freedom of creating parties are different things
Last I checked creating parties is an expression of speech. Also, if you love free speech absolutism so much, then there’s always twitter. Sounds like you’d be much more comfortable with that crowd.
Sorry I hate your ideas way too much to continue this discussion without fighting
bye
US literally starts and supports wars, spends tax money on nothing except military and surveillance, creates propaganda to make the people more aggressive and “patriotic”. The first thing is worse than China’s because China hurts freedom when US hurts physically. Technically it is worse. You can say that there’s bad air quality in China but it’s not the same thing
No it doesn’t. China is FAR more free than the US.