Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/11/19/the-snoopers-charter-is-now-la.html
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Going to post the obligatory “what can we do?” question, but for some time now I’ve felt the answer is “nothing”.
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Wait, so 1984 wasn’t an instruction manual?
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I’ve been thinking, perhaps I should just campaign to be put in the fucking camp already. This ratcheting process is just a painful waste of time now it’s clear where we’re headed.
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So hows that “making british laws for british citizens without the meddling of EU eurocrats”-thing working out so far? Mighty fine it seems … play stupid games, win stupid prices.
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I think it pretty clearly was. As far as some people were concerned, at least.
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It all comes down to power.
I’m pretty sure the Mail and Sun readers who voted for Brexit are also in favour of these laws.
As long as they’re only used against other people, of course.
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We are one click away from totalitarianism.
Dude, you guys have a Queen for chrissakes. Wouldn’t she be able to overrule whoever English Trump is? Conversely, if the next King decided to rule with an iron fist, aren’t they rather limited by the Magna Carta? That’s kind of like a constitution, right?
It seems to me your checks and balances might work out better than ours here in the States, and ours have withstood Bush with both houses of Congress behind him. Not like it couldn’t happen here, but maybe government inefficiency will save the day.
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What have you actually tried so far?
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In theory, yes. But only once.
Whether we would end up with a republic or King Charles, I can’t tell you.
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Last time that happened:
I’m totally down with a spaniel as head of state.
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But who gets to look after it?
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You know, I don’t think those fools and dolts have thought beyond “yeah! Fuck’em!”
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Voted for Scottish independence, mostly (but not solely) for distance from what I see as invasve ideas coming from Westminster. Voted to remain in Europe as while its far from perfect, it can provide a shield from some extreme Govt policies. Joined and supported organisations like EFF and No2Id since Labour’s database proposal under Blair. Tried to convince friends, family and colleagues that Theresa May was a terrifying control freak of a Home Secretary, and that they should avoid voting for the Conservatives based on her policies, if not Cameron’s. Voted for Liberal Democrats who seemed like the only party to even consider surveillance an issue until Clegg shot himself in the foot.
Sure, I could probably have been a more active supporter; I’m a natural introvert so doesn’t come easy, but I’ll own up to that. It just strikes me that the left is losing, everywhere, and with essentially no opposition thanks to Labour’s infighting and our media’s obsession with Corbyn, combined with the perfect storm of Brexit and Trump, the Tories under May arent going anywhere.
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It’d be an improvement for sure.
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Well, we could try including in every email or text, words like “bomb, ammoniun nitrate, 7.62mm, ISIS, Allah, suicide…”, and a whole lot of others which would overload the eavesdroppers so much that they’d give up!
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I’m shocked! insert futurama meme here
The opposition to this has been fucking pathetic and the apathy of the public probably played a big part in that but then it’s barely been covered in the news what with one thing and another coughbrexitcough. The boss of andrews & arnold has been giving his thoughts on how they’re going to circumvent this. It’s a shame they are quite an expensive isp for such a limited monthly download cap.
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i’m more and more convinced that we’ll look back at the 1920-1989 years as an island of tumultuous progress, not unlike 1789-1815. For about 70 years, Western middle classes decided it was in their best interest to agitate the working classes into providing better conditions for everyone; and the working classes saw that as the best way to improve their lot.
Since the fall of Soviet power, we’ve reverted to the jungle of “every man for himself”. The working-class people who did manage to improve, have decided it’s time to roll up the drawbridge to avoid the even-poorer from repeating the journey and potentially compete with them. The middle classes are lost in a dream of jet-setting techno-progress that has no regards for people left behind. Our rulers have an easy life, pitting poor versus poor and tricking us into making the wrong choices for the right reasons.
I honestly can’t see a way out. We thought the internet would take down barriers, but now it’s actually forcing us in tiny little bubbles. Personal freedoms and Socialism have always been uneasy bedfellows, but one cannot go anywhere without the other; likewise, middle classes and working classes cannot hope to significantly change anything on their own, because our rulers will exploit for their own gain any movement that might emerge (brexit, tea party / trumpism, M5S etc). We need a vision of the future that can be sold to people with little hope.
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What is required is a global democratic revolution that retires the old world and builds a new one. I am glad the old Britain is falling and I look forward to the new Britain.
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