We've never seen anything like this in our lifetime since the Soviet Union days, which most of us were either too young to remember or not even born yet.
It doesn't matter how it gets spun, this is what authoritarianism under a tyrannical Government looks like.
It's really important that people rely less on just social media to spread these things and instead send them out directly themselves as well. I know that sounds silly and like it won't accomplish much, but when I began doing it after the election in 2020 — when they cut-off people being able to share information — I was surprised at just how many people close to me didn't have a clue what was happening.
It does wake people up. Or, at the very least, it plants tiny seeds in the minds that sprout into questions later as they begin to notice things. That's just how I see it.
I think the worst thing people can do is be apathetic and silent.
If we don't begin taking risks and speaking up then the consequences later seem like they'll be far more pernicious than the potential for being socially ostracized in the present. Those people who would lose a friend for such things are the truly intolerant ones and aren't worth keeping around anyway — that's for damn sure.
There is another tool in the kit that the soviets didn't have. Sort of a neo-Samizdat. Encrypted messaging apps like signal and telegram. They can be used to send info directly to people and are at least fairly difficult for them to intercept. You can easily get all your family and friends on the platform and it's like your own personal Twitter or something.
I don't think many people would understand the days of the old internet. Back when you skirted everything through IRC chats, sharing files scattered into pieces that needed to be compiled, renamed, and combined. Or, even finding hidden links to things in a webpages source file.
We had so many little tricks that even savvy people who didn't participate in the coding/hacking part were privy to, because back then we were communities that shared everything — especially information.
People traded those valuable skills for convenience. Which is understandable in a way but has also made them so much easier to control.
We've never seen anything like this in our lifetime since the Soviet Union days, which most of us were either too young to remember or not even born yet.
It doesn't matter how it gets spun, this is what authoritarianism under a tyrannical Government looks like.
It's really important that people rely less on just social media to spread these things and instead send them out directly themselves as well. I know that sounds silly and like it won't accomplish much, but when I began doing it after the election in 2020 — when they cut-off people being able to share information — I was surprised at just how many people close to me didn't have a clue what was happening.
It does wake people up. Or, at the very least, it plants tiny seeds in the minds that sprout into questions later as they begin to notice things. That's just how I see it.
I think the worst thing people can do is be apathetic and silent.
If we don't begin taking risks and speaking up then the consequences later seem like they'll be far more pernicious than the potential for being socially ostracized in the present. Those people who would lose a friend for such things are the truly intolerant ones and aren't worth keeping around anyway — that's for damn sure.
There is another tool in the kit that the soviets didn't have. Sort of a neo-Samizdat. Encrypted messaging apps like signal and telegram. They can be used to send info directly to people and are at least fairly difficult for them to intercept. You can easily get all your family and friends on the platform and it's like your own personal Twitter or something.
Yes. HAM radio. WiFi mesh networks. Local autists building mini servers of cached data like a local library on mesh networks.
Back to the BBS days, boys! Door games, muds, caches of text file and pdf books, local roving bands of hackers and demo coders.
I don't think many people would understand the days of the old internet. Back when you skirted everything through IRC chats, sharing files scattered into pieces that needed to be compiled, renamed, and combined. Or, even finding hidden links to things in a webpages source file.
We had so many little tricks that even savvy people who didn't participate in the coding/hacking part were privy to, because back then we were communities that shared everything — especially information.
People traded those valuable skills for convenience. Which is understandable in a way but has also made them so much easier to control.