Most people probably can’t immediately place the name Winston Smith, but if I say, 1984, suddenly your recall starts to hone it to your high school reading list. Winston was the poor protagonist in the dystopian novel, 1984. His reality has become your reality in recent ‘1984’ news.
I’d like to just point out three news stories that you should be concerned about. In a way, there is nothing earth shattering new about these stories but that’s part of the problem. We’re already starting to accept this reality. Compare and contrast:
Amazon wants a key to your house. I did it. I regretted it. |Washington Post | Geoffrey Fowler
While this article is about a month old and it could be rivaled by the invasive implications of the best-selling ECHO home assistant and other devices from Google etc., this points out a new level of privacy breakdown, all under the pretense of theft prevention and retail choices. While I personally like shopping on Amazon, this does not mean that I’d want them in my living room, more or less physically. Once they make it that far, what’s the next step? The immediate objective seems benign enough – after all, you’d probably leave the key under the mat to allow the plumber to come in. Ironically, once you let Amazon in, suddenly, your plumber no longer has access.
Facebook developing ‘Portal’ gadget which will let it put microphones and cameras in people’s homes | Jasper Hill | Metro UK
This morning, I got an automatic one question survey from Facebook (on my desktop). The question was: (1-5) how would you rate Facebook’s concern for its users. I gave them a ‘3’ and then a small lecture in the optional write-in section. Then, this afternoon, this article came out. I really just have one question for Mark Zuckerberg: Didn’t you even kind of want to try to avoid the appearance of being some supreme leader from Oceania (the super-state in Orwell’s 1984)? How much more brazen could you be? Due to the timing of the survey this morning, I have a feeling that Mark is simply testing the water for the next wave of world domination. Unfortunately, I believe there are actually a lot of people that will pay their own hard-earned money to yet again ratchet up the ability of Facebook to own them and make themselves Facebook’s Epsilon. (I know, I’m pulling in a lot of dystopia tonight!)
UNDERCOVER VIDEO: Twitter Engineers To “Ban a Way of Talking” Through “Shadow Banning,” Algorithms to Cencor Opposing Political Opinions | Staff Report | Project Veritas
So to complete the triumvirate of tech atrocities, we go to Twitter to learn that more or less the entire staff is engaging in mass technical racketeering, subversion and fascism. Project Veritas just happened to drop by and get the leads straight from the horse’s mouths. While this type of expose’ usually gets sidelined quickly because people don’t like their method or reporting, what is obviously at stake here is the truth of extreme programmed censorship by the Silicon Valley elite; as if we didn’t need more reason to not trust you Silicon Valley. While Twitter is just – twitter, it points out the importance of opening and maintaining alternate media, of which Twitter used to regard itself. Now they’re just the ideological hacks of the Democrats or whatever elite snobs they choose to identify with.
Very few average people are activists against tech causes like this except to the extent that they maybe carry flip phones and opt out of invasive services. The day is coming when that will not be enough. Everyone around you is being influenced and sucked in. If information gets so controlled that we live in some literal Winston Smith world, there will be no fighting back.
Commentary by Lee Jones