this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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[–] Candelestine 136 points 1 year ago (4 children)

... wtf is going on over there... What kind of douchebags did you guys elect? I mean, I'm American, I know I can't throw stones here, but y'alls were better than that. You like, wisely stood against our 9/11 invasion and we probably should've listened.

But, wtf?

btw, if anyone was too lazy to dig, this publication is a nigerian newspaper that actually seems legit. Founded in 2020, so pretty new still. Looking at their front page they mostly just do local reporting. Has had run-ins with local power.

[–] [email protected] 89 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

We elected him as the "last rempart to the extreme right". Turns out he and his cronies are corrupted authoritarian fucks. Their shit social and economic policies are opening a highway to the actual far right in the near future, most likely 2027.

[–] baked_tea 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)
[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)

More like shitty electoral system that facilitates the choice of a lesser evil instead of the choice for the best candidate.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Sounds like the United States.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

They have proportional representation and a ton of parties. It's a completely different kind of suck. Although I guess they also are presidential.

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[–] [email protected] 45 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

The last election was a shitshow.

As usual, the younger generation didn't bother voting, and the older one voted en masse for conservative candidates because they are those our media push for, while at the same time slandering progressive ones.

In the election runoff, we had the choice between an openly fascist candidate from a party literally founded by former Nazis, and a "light fascist" one that people were seeing as the lesser evil. Though it's pretty obvious now that his fascism isn't so light (he openly admires Petain, a french leader who collaborated with Nazi Germany), and I hope people will remember that for the next election and understand that voting for a democratic candidate in the first turn if very important.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 1 year ago (9 children)

Weird how this sounds alot like what's happening in the US. Almost like fascism is encroaching all acrost the world as it crumbles.

[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (2 children)

Yeah, it's happening all over western liberal democracies. Inflation is going crazy and wealth inequalities are growing at an alarming rate. Because of that, people in power are afraid of a popular uprising, and they would rather see fascists rise to power and protect capitalism, than an economical shift to the left and lose some of their wealth.

It happened many times before. The more commonly known examples being:

  • Prominent industrialists and agricultural landowners providing financial support to Mussolini's party because they feared the rise of socialism, and saw in him a means to counter it.
  • German industrialists who were fearful of the rise of the Communist Party and provided financial support to the Nazi party.
  • Spanish landowners and businessmen who were alarmed by the social and economic reforms of the Second Spanish Republic and supported Franco's rise to power.

History tends to repeat itself.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

Scratch a liberal...

[–] Candelestine 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

To add to this, it would simply be remiss for any actual rival of the west to not attempt to stir their democracies against them.

It's a fundamental weakness that only representative governments have, and authoritarians would simply be stupid not to target it. It's very inexpensive to operate in the modern information space.

I mean, we got all these checks and balances in the first place because our systems are fundamentally very vulnerable. If you'd like a story on a less-secure system, look into the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

I mean, in the craziest of crazy scenarios, we could wind up with civil wars. Wouldn't there be some folks out there that'd just love to see that? You think they can't make bots, produce content, hire cheap labor?

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Oh yes, voter manipulation is very concerning. Even the simple fact that foreign powers can legally finance a candidate for another country's presidential election is absolutely crazy to me.

But I think there is something even worse than that:

  • When participation is so low that barely 50% of electors cast a vote, with one category of people (the elderly) being massively over-represented.

  • When there is no possible recourse if the majority of electors isn't satisfied with their options, and blank ballots aren't even accounted for.

  • When the main platforms where campaigning happens are all owned by and handful of billionaires, who can choose to present in a good light the candidates that will be the most favorable to them, and do the opposite for others.

  • When political campaigns are funded privately (and as I said, sometimes even by authoritarian foreign powers), those who favor billionaires being again at a massive advantage.

The game is so strongly rigged, I'm surprised that the general population still widely considers us democracies. Starting by reforming our electoral systems would do a lot of good and would be a lot simpler than trying to stop social media bots in my opinion, even though we should also tackle that issue.

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[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (4 children)

Recently I read it's actually worse in Europe, because the far-right has noticeable youth support, unlike here where it's proportional to age.

That makes me very, very nervous.

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[–] [email protected] 13 points 1 year ago (6 children)

You know that America just... does this, right? No bill, no law... In fact it was the first to do this at all. It's why in crime shows they remove the battery (from phone where you still can, of course.)

[–] SheeEttin 20 points 1 year ago

No, the "Patriot" Act did authorize stuff like this in the US. There was also the "Freedom" Act, and generally this is all FISA stuff that has very low standards for what's allowed.

[–] AreYouNotEntertained 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It is not legal for police to spy on citizens via their phone cameras in the US…

[–] foggenbooty 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Police, no. Homeland security? crickets

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Still no. Do they do it anyway? Probably, but that doesn't make it legal.

[–] Zron 11 points 1 year ago

If I do something, people find out about it, and I don’t get arrested, it’s defacto legal

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[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago

The movie citizen four did an excellent job detailing different ways a government (in this case the united states) can do this.

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

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[–] ChronoPixel 116 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Wouldn't this breach multiple EU privacy laws?

[–] Awthatsnotright 23 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is what I'm wondering.

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[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago

They just need to add the word 'terrorist' somewhere (and then a bunch of ambiguous other groups and loose definitions) and it's enough to get people to look the other way. Because the spooky boogie mans will come and get you! And after all if you aren't a terrorist you shouldn't have anything to hide right? Only evil brown terrorists would use secure channels of communication and encryption, normal law abiding citizens wouldn't dare, or have a reason to.

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[–] [email protected] 53 points 1 year ago (3 children)

This will definitely not be misused by anyone in the government. How on the earth did such blatantly dystopian law get passed?

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[–] [email protected] 51 points 1 year ago

How to make your country burn faster 101

[–] [email protected] 41 points 1 year ago

It’s almost like Macron wants to be decapitated.

[–] Bushwhack 30 points 1 year ago (2 children)

1984 - George Orwell tried to warn us.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

This is bad, but that's such an overused comparison. It can even be counterproductive because the Oceania from the books is so obviously different from the real world.

[–] Bushwhack 10 points 1 year ago

I’m talking about the wall in their rooms though that they can use to listen in when they want, you have no private conversations.

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[–] [email protected] 27 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The article does not mention, how will this be achieved technology wise? I don't know of any universal way that a government might activate these features on a person's phone. Unless network operators/phone manufacturers start installing backdoors. This does not bode well.

[–] [email protected] 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm wondering the same. Hopefully privacy oriented projects such as GrapheneOS can counter whatever technology they will try to implement.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Patriot act requires them to do so. I am gonna guess they probably will unless they want to go to federal prison.

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[–] [email protected] 22 points 1 year ago (3 children)

The US has exported it's police brutality and police state to France. They even have the similar right wing news apperatice to convince the populace it's all good. Making Uncle Sam proud 🇺🇸🇫🇷🍟🥖

[–] RestrictedAccount 15 points 1 year ago

Not every bad thing people do is the fault of the US.

The French can be proper assholes. Look up the history of Haiti and which European colonies purchased the most African slaves.

Then ask. Where did all they go?

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[–] [email protected] 19 points 1 year ago

I am Indian. Even our douche bag of politicians will think twice before passing such legislation. Of course they will spy illegally on us but they won't pass such obvious fascist legislation.

[–] [email protected] 18 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Do they like, want the protests to continue on our something? They can't be that stupid.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago

The protests are for police brutality against Minorities. Apparently the shot 17 years old kid was repeatedly hit with back of the gun which made him moves his leg away from the breaks and since it's an automatic the car started moving forward...the rest is history.

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[–] Awthatsnotright 18 points 1 year ago

The Patriot Act took care of that for us in the US!

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (2 children)

A Google search for "France phone camera" only gives this posted link and dailymail.co.uk article, both of which are not really trustworthy sources, IMO.

So I'm gonna go with "this is very possibly fake news".

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago (1 children)

At least it's happening out in the open? Other states do this without parlimentary or congressional approval.

[–] [email protected] 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Interestingly enough I went to a lecture by a Chinese lawmaker yesterday who said the exact same thing. When it's codified in law, you know what they can and can't do, and what they can and can't use in court against you. When governments just do it covertly and subvert due process, your right to privacy suffers a lot more. She didn't have to point out what Snowden uncovered about the NSA for everyone to know what she was referring to.

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[–] Aceticon 10 points 1 year ago

~~LIberté~~, ~~Egalité~~, ~~Fraternité~~.

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