Comment by Eddy_Viscosity2 4 days ago
The most depressing is that what happens in China, will eventually happen in the west too. I'm sure certain US, UK, and EU bureaucrats are already crafting campaigns about how this ability will 'save the children' and that it should be implemented immediately (politicians and certain other selected people will be exempt of course).
It's inevitable because we've seen time and again that all it takes to get the public opinion behind this kind of thing is to talk about how it is needed to catch pedophiles and terrorists.
And if you talk back? Why, you must be a pedophile or a terrorist, otherwise why would you have anything to hide?
It's gotten bad enough that people here on HN - Hacker News! - non-ironically make more or less this argument.
It is inevitable, because the means by which civil society can organize, coordinate, and spend money on PR about this, are all firmly in the control of a very few people. These same people are generally on the side of more centralized control, because they are the ones who will wield it.
> Right now liberal people mostly sit back and wait for things to get better
First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for me and there was no one left to speak for me.
There's nothing inevitable about this. Civil society needs to organize, coordinate, and spend money on PR about this.
Right now liberal people mostly sit back and wait for things to get better, it's not enough. (Also going and walking up and down is not really effective.)