Submission Statement: At a time of intense pressure on democratic norms and institutions, the author takes a look back to see the origins of the security state and how vast powers originally constrained by only the norms of liberal governance became tools to suppress dissent.
"If you have nothing to hide, then you have nothing to fear."
Posted by Adminisnotadmin
2 Comments
This was talked outside of libertarian circles back then too, but it was hard to see in lead publications, because they toed the line willingly and downright enthusiastically, so a normie that was only looking at mainstream sources was never going to see it. A single information window, which also decided at the time to narrow its overton window. And yes, the NYT was a big part of this, as usual. The difference between them and Rush shrunk on the topic for quite a bit, and it’s not as if it was Rush moving.
Immigrants noticed the changes first, especially if they were not white. It was clear that America’s authoritarianism had gone up quite a bit, and that’s still the country that thought Cops was reasonable television, put the army in sporting events, and that had movie studios joined at the hip with the armed forces.
It was quite jarring to hear people talk about how this was The Land of the Free, when we were losing freedom at the same time.
The capacity of AI and private-public partnership to do an end-run around the bill of rights is absolutely terrifying.
I don’t think this cat can be herded back into the bag, but I do think that anyone who values civil liberties needs to be extremely clear-eyed about the threat posed by a pay-to-play panopticon.