Of course, because by the new definition, the leader is "peak American", so everything in collision with his view is naturally "anti-American".

The usage of the term "anti-American" by anyone in a public role should be rejected as insufficient definition and unfit for a representative to use. On the spot, immediately.

Is it anti-American to brush your teeth after breakfast? or rather before? Is both American? Neither of it?

The red scare of the 1950s was ridiculous enough, but at least the Soviet Union was an actual threat. We are now at a point where “pro-transgender” is the new threat?

This is the outcome that every privacy advocate has been warning about for decades and being increasingly challenged by people who were fine with it as 'they have nothing to hide and do no wrong'.

yes probably, and ive been calling this as their playbook for about a year

Make no mistake, this is not some sophisticated conspiracy. This is pure laziness and abuse of power. They have been using "domestic terrorist" as a button to slap anytime they dont want to be questioned. the phrase no longer means anything besides "this person questioned authority"

ICE has used it to label people they shot for videoing them. Note that they knew the video evidence existed and labelled them anyway, assuming they would be able to avoid court altogether and prevent the video evidence being seen. In at least one case, this didnt work and the victim was correctly identified as such.

So this isnt hypothetical. It is a playbook being used right now, and people are testing the waters for how much they can get away with.

And in the 30s germany started branding things as being anti-german, we all know where that led us. This isn't a new play book by any means. Seeing so many comments debating terminology worries me, we should be discussing the implications.

No, Dem candidates are safe. The culture wars benefit both parties and their billionaire owners.

As a trans woman, enough is enough! I’m tired of us being made into the scapegoat while literal pedophiles and sexual criminals not only walk free but gain ever greater power and idiots keep blaming us for their problems as they close their ears and stomp their feet’s on the ground

That's inline whit some of the goals of the people behind Project 2025 are calling for.

another important part isn't just the ideology targeting - it's the directive for local and national law enforcement for form Joint Terrorism Task Forces (JTTFs) targeting individuals and organizations in this vein. JTTFs are already mobilized and targeting people - see https://atlpresscollective.com/2026/06/12/federal-prosecutor...

I think of that poem, First They Came:

  First they came for the Communists
  And I did not speak out
  Because I was not a Communist
  Then 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 out for me

Heh, now as an Austrian, why does that all sound so familiar?

> The police, "suspecting the conflagration to be the first of a series of Communist acts of terrorism", have arrested a number of Communist leaders.

https://www.theguardian.com/news/1933/mar/28/leadersandreply...

Huh.

Don't worry, after Democrats get control, they'll add alt-left, alt-right, radical free speech, socialist, anti-CIA, radical feminist, pro-border enforcement and you'll be happy with it.

-----

And I say "add," because nothing will be taken away. The transgender thing was just to destroy the DSA in 2016. 2016, the year the DSA was actually a threat. The left has historically had no relationship with the "right" of men who are aroused by performing female stereotypes to force women to participate in this with them, or the sexual mutilation of gender stereotype non-conforming children. Mainstream Democrats are finally dropping it, because it was insane.

Democrats didn't even support gay marriage 20 years ago, goddamn Dick Chaney was ahead of them. Neolibs just realized that if they encouraged the most misogynistic and narcissistic crossdressers to think that they were left-wing (although their only "left-wing" belief was their hatred for women's right to avoid them), they would ruin everything they touched. If you're interested in the absurdly conservative, homophobic, and fetishistic history of male transvestitism, read things like Transvestia.

The goal was to have a bunch of crossdressers screaming at the DSA conference in 2016, and it was achieved so hard. Probably the only duty of feds who have infiltrated the DSA is to advocate for (male) trans inclusion and recruitment, everything else just works itself out from there.

Talerico (a bland, worthless, ambitious Democratic industry plant) is running against the most corrupt and useless possible opponent in Texas, and the only ace that they have is that Talerico was another person repeating dumbly that the state should be paying for men who want to appear more like women to get cosmetic surgery on the state's dime. That is insane enough that people are like "Paxton's totally corrupt, but he's not such a tool that he would say something like this in public just because some nonprofit told him to."

Yet there's incentive structures that push it forward.

It's a classic example of us being dragged along by incentives and emergent patterns against our individual wills and better judgement.

People think it's a conspiracy of the elite, but the last part of your message is true and it makes me wonder to what extent everyone is being dragged along by everyone else and nobody can stop because nobody can stop.

I mean if I were a multi-billionaire, I'm not sure I could do anything. I could piss into the wind with a somewhat larger amount of piss.

I've come to believe that our lack of agency over emergent behaviors in our own societies and economies is a central problem of the human condition.

6. who controls and accesses the data will change over time

7. authoritarians and evil men can have a one-stop shop to know where to round up political opponents

8. power becomes increasingly entrenched and concentrated

9. See 7

> EU style governmental pushes to defend digital rights.

No, I don't think we need Chat Control in the US or our government forcing ISPs and CDNs to block whole swaths of the internet just because a soccer game is on TV.

All of your positives are possible without mass surveillance.

> There are dozens if not 100s of ways that mass surveillance can improve human life.

There are dozens of ways living in a cage can improve human life.

You won't be exposed to dangerous ideas and you might get a calorie allowance. There's little danger of an unwanted pregnancy, and you might be given labor-related chores or exercises to occupy your time.

The danger with all of these systems is what happens when they are abused. That's not a matter of if, just a matter of when.

We are building a cage around society. It's so slow you don't realize the shackles being placed around your ankle and your neck. But one day, when it's too late to protest, the switch will be flipped.

We're already living in 1984. We are always just a few election cycles away from 1934.

We are trying, but the interop of these self hosted services currently suck. Fediverse is hard to get in to unless you have many users or you just have to join a popular instance. Who knows what they do in this instance, and it turns back into a loop.

How about this, but also send them usb sticks with loads of data available on them that they thought was "private" including surveillance footage taken from flock cameras etc. That might be good motivation to be more aware. Not sure about the legality of this though lol

You mean the 3rd amendment, right?

Are you advocating for inaction? If so, what do you wish to achieve?

When those in power regard the people as the enemy their natural allies are other governments with similar attitudes. So you don't need to wait until another government gains access, you offer it instead.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Five_Eyes

Don’t be That Guy please. This tired talking point gets walked out in every privacy discussion. Both things can be (and are) bad at once, but just because one problem exists doesn’t mean that others aren’t worth solving.

In any case this article is about the whole spectrum of mass surveillance, not one specific company.

how not? All of this is "soft" control, if tomorrow 75% of the people in any country decided "this can't keep on going on", all relevant public buildings would be occupied everywhere and the relevant government imprisoned promptly.

On a more positive note, the fact that this doesn't happen indicates things aren't that bad right now. No amount of KYC or age verification can stop large amounts of angry people who want one thing.

People sometimes bring up China - which isn't relevant because people still remember being extremely poor, thus being grateful to the Party - or one of those dictatorships as counterexamples for this, but see the Arab Spring (food got more expensive -> revolutions), Nepal recently... etc.

Hear, hear!

There’s lots of questions around who was actually behind 9/11, looking at who benefited the most is helpful. We may never know the truth but we know who the real “terrorists” are, because they’re terrorizing everyone now.