Solid observation on inflation targeting non-optional goods. The shift toward captive spending categories is basically a stealth tax that compounds over time. I noticed healthcare follows a similar patern where costs scale with how desperate or trapped people feel. The surveillance piece is wild too, the fact that citizen counter-surveillance gets labeled as terrorism really shows how fragile the legitamcy actually is.
If you can convince enough people that surveillance and digital enslavement is necessary for your safety say, or the "greater good" perhaps, then you have a situation reminiscent of the covid debacle where morality and ethics evaporate. Evil is justified by popular vote or consensus, but is portrayed as necessary and the right thing to do.
Twisting the truth is how they control us and legitimize their agenda so as far as I'm concerned anything that exposes their deceit is fair game.
Legally, this could be a test case: is using tech to watch government actors still free speech, or will courts redefine digital documentation of state power as a punishable offense?
…
“Digital documentation of state power” would be journalism, a 1st Amendment protection.
But digital documentation for the purpose of obstructing justice, plus assaulting law enforcement officers? That’s (domestic) terrorism. It’s not legally protesting.
I think that it is fairly obvious that there are factions that want to do away with the Constitution. I am not playing partisan games. The Republicans and Democrats are just playing out a proxy war between Tech, Pharma, Oil, Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and the ever present Military Industrial Complex. It is being funded by oligarchs here and abroad.
You just have to wait a while and the factions reorganize. It used to be the Democrats that were for free speech, against immigration, and for "the Working Man". Now those are Republican talking points. "My Body, My Choice" and support for the Second Amendment flip flops according to the current cause du jour. Both sides flaunt their particular martyrs.
We have no one to blame but ourselves. We make poor choices in our elections. As things are, I firmly believe that we would be better off recruiting our representatives by lottery as a civic duty like jury duty instead.
Solid observation on inflation targeting non-optional goods. The shift toward captive spending categories is basically a stealth tax that compounds over time. I noticed healthcare follows a similar patern where costs scale with how desperate or trapped people feel. The surveillance piece is wild too, the fact that citizen counter-surveillance gets labeled as terrorism really shows how fragile the legitamcy actually is.
If you can convince enough people that surveillance and digital enslavement is necessary for your safety say, or the "greater good" perhaps, then you have a situation reminiscent of the covid debacle where morality and ethics evaporate. Evil is justified by popular vote or consensus, but is portrayed as necessary and the right thing to do.
Twisting the truth is how they control us and legitimize their agenda so as far as I'm concerned anything that exposes their deceit is fair game.
Legally, this could be a test case: is using tech to watch government actors still free speech, or will courts redefine digital documentation of state power as a punishable offense?
…
“Digital documentation of state power” would be journalism, a 1st Amendment protection.
But digital documentation for the purpose of obstructing justice, plus assaulting law enforcement officers? That’s (domestic) terrorism. It’s not legally protesting.
I think that it is fairly obvious that there are factions that want to do away with the Constitution. I am not playing partisan games. The Republicans and Democrats are just playing out a proxy war between Tech, Pharma, Oil, Wall Street, Madison Avenue, and the ever present Military Industrial Complex. It is being funded by oligarchs here and abroad.
You just have to wait a while and the factions reorganize. It used to be the Democrats that were for free speech, against immigration, and for "the Working Man". Now those are Republican talking points. "My Body, My Choice" and support for the Second Amendment flip flops according to the current cause du jour. Both sides flaunt their particular martyrs.
We have no one to blame but ourselves. We make poor choices in our elections. As things are, I firmly believe that we would be better off recruiting our representatives by lottery as a civic duty like jury duty instead.
By Me: Yet another great, balanced, informative and thought-provoking column by Zahar, but what I love even more: that Simpsons clip! - ET