The Honest Courtesan

The Trump…[regime] is more interested in monitoring and intimidating public servants than in actually governing.  –  Michael Martinez

Thou Shalt Not (#21)

Crypto-moralists believe anything people enjoy must be “bad for them”:

Social media use ranks with smoking as a threat to the health of young people, according to [a bizarre exaggeration of]…a submission to a government consultation on social media use for under-16s…the Academy of Medical Royal Colleges [actually] says doctors should routinely ask about screen time…when seeing younger patients.  There is no [evidence]…that [social media] is harmful to children [or young adults, and in fact two massive new studies show that moderate usage is actually good for young people.  What actually seems to harm them is pervasive surveillance and infantilization, such as referring to young adults as “children” and attempting to control everything they see, hear, and do.  But]…Technology Secretary Liz Kendall [wants to ban] social media for under-16s [despite the abject failure of such a totalitarian scheme]…in Australia…Kendall said…”No [mere facts are] going to stop me from [impos]ing what I think is right [on everyone else]”…

Panopticon (#1563)

In surveillance, fascism beats communism hands down:

Executives at Home Depot and Lowe’s want to hide…the[ir collaboration with government efforts to destroy] civil rights [b]y shar[ing] automatic license plate reader…data with…cop…[shops, spook houses] and [goon squads], who use the information to hunt [people they wish to brutalize]…shareholders are asking them to produce reports describing how their company assesses the risks…when they [collaborate]…by [feeding] the Flock [network]…pictures of vehicles as they drive by…[so pigs, spooks, and goons can root in them] to [target human beings for violence by]…identify[ing their] cars…[government actors can] watch children…stalk and terrorize [sexual prey, and harass]…people seeking reproductive health care, or people of the “wrong” race…

I Spy (#1595)

Fools eagerly hand the government constant surveillance without even being asked:

Oura rings are [faddish tech gewgaw]s worn on a finger.  These [self-surveillance gimmick]s keep track of a person’s health data, like heart rate, sleep patterns, menstrual cycles, and dozens of other data points, including their location…Oura’s [half-assed] security design choices allow governments to [root in whatever] records [they like]…And, Oura…data is not end-to-end encrypted.  That means that an[yone with the apparatus can intercept any]…user’s health data…at [many] points as it travels from…ring…through…phone app, over the internet, and…[onto] Oura’s [insecure] servers…staff [can] access it…as [can]…a prosecutor with a warrant, a hacker with stolen keys, or a [politician with]…a fustercluck of a[n agenda]…Oura would not say how…often it turns over user data [to malicious actors like cops, but it]…has sold over 5.5 million rings to date…

Walled Garden (#1609)

Fascists are infuriated by free people who ignore their diktats:

VPNs are currently under attack in various ways…last year, the Danish government…[tried to criminalize us[ing] a VPN to access geoblocked streaming content or…websites [politicians dislike]…France [wants]…to compel NordVPN, ExpressVPN, ProtonVPN, and others to block access to pirate sites and services…[which will] open…the door to…more calls to use [such orders] for a wider range of material…some [legitimate VPN provid]ers are considering whether to abandon the French market completely…[driving] people [to use shady] VPN providers…The UK government has announced wide-ranging [censorship] plans [justified by barfing]…“keep children safe online”…[in] adult [citizens’ faces]…the[se]…misguided plans will also bolster the growing attempts by the copyright industry to demonise VPNs – a core element of the Internet’s plumbing – as unnecessary tools that are only used [by peasants to disobey their rightful masters]…

Welcome to the Future (#1618)

“Bossware” is even more horrifying when the boss is the government:

The Trump [regime] is building a surveillance network to spy on its own workforce across multiple agencies…[and] has already given Palantir an initial $3.9 million to do so…the USDA…VA…[and] SSA…[are already] surveilling workers…and measuring occupancy levels…[as]…a prelude to consolidating or outright shuttering of more offices nationwide, based on…staff levels [which] are low because DOGE [fired 348,219] workers last year…as…part of…Russell Vought’s plan to strip Americans of federal services…Research shows working under constant scrutiny harms workers’ physical and mental health…[but] Palantir…is getting rich off U.S. taxes…

Enshittification (#1636)

Evil corporations are using artificial stupidity to destroy journalism entirely:

A [web]site called National Today…[is re]publish[ing]…reworded version[s] of o[thers’ work]…and…present[ing] the reporting as if it were the original source…[it] is blatant plagiarism…[from] countless…publications, ranging from top newspapers to local newsrooms across the country…stealing their original reporting and using it to publish a torrent of what appear to clearly be [computer]-generated articles, complete with bizarre errors and hallucinations.  The scope is immense.  [Futurism reporters] tried to count how many it published in a single day, but lost count around 300…In addition to the incredible speed at which it churns out all this slop, National Today is full of comically terrible errors…[such as replacing] real people’s names with “Jane Doe”…[or getting] stuck on a certain quote, repeatedly jamming it into articles where it makes no sense…National Today is…[run] by the TOP Agency, a flashy [PR firm] that claims to have worked with nationally-known companies including Microsoft, Intel…US Bank and Discover…

Panopticon (#1636)

Safetyism has always enabled totalitarianism:

…163 immigration-related searches were registered in Cleveland’s Flock camera audit logs between December 28th and January 27th, despite the city having blocked immigration searches since November…[this is because] the drones [sold to useful idiots as helping] the Cleveland fire and emergency medical services were “accidentally” and “mistakenly” included in Flock S[urveillance]’s national network…the records include dozens of searches explicitly referencing “I.C.E”…[and] originat[ing in quisling states such as] Florida…and…Texas…

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