this post was submitted on 02 Jul 2023
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2 decades of IT here. I'm comfortable on linux but still irritated that there is no phone that won't spy on me. I'm not irritated enough to go through the effort of jailbreaking my android. I own zero smart home products. Firefox and ublockorigin seems to block 99% of ads.
Not only are we sold as advertising profiles, but we are also getting profiled by our governments. The Chinese identification system is extremely advanced. Your favorite democracy is not far behind. The UK fines you automatically if you drive your car to the wrong place, etc.
Glad I'm going to be old and dead before the worst of it. Third world countries are still relatively untouched.
As much as I don't appreciate the state in which they left the world for the rest of us, the boomer generation really did live in a golden era. During a technological boom, where technology was improving lives faster than it was doing anything else. The advent of modern refridgeration techniques, consumer vehicles, automatic telephone switching systems.... even to the point of mobile communications, cellphones, and the internet; almost all of which was before privacy became a much larger issue like it is now. On top of that, they made more compared to the cost of goods sold, they had fair wages (thanks to unions), and working conditions, especially safety, was on a steady up-hill climb throughout their lifetime. On top of all that, their major assets, like homes and such were consistently appreciating in value throughout the years. A $60k home in like 1950, depending on location, now sells for 4x or even 10-20x the price today.
Millenials, Gen Z/Zoomers, we may live solidly in the information age, with access to a vast wealth of knowledge, almost all the time, constantly connected and constantly in touch, but it has come at a cost. We do not enjoy the same privacy and freedom that our parents did. Everything is posted online, whether we want it to be or not, private conversations get recorded and analysed automatically by our smart assistants either from our phones or the various google home/amazon alexa/whatever devices that litter our households, and at all times we're being monitored in some way, shape, or form. What's happening now, is that companies, governments and the ruling class are starting to make use of that information against us, to drive everyone further into disorder, futile infighting and dissention that's only distracting us from their main plot of essentially robbing us of every dime, nickel and dollar they can. More for them, less for everyone else; but everyone is so blinded by idiotic notions like race and gender politics and treating eachother like hot garbage because they're different, ancient ideas of racism and anti-gay propeganda that we're either fighting for or against very passionately, as they slowly raise prices, lower wages, reduce how much you can buy with your hard earned dollar, steal our land, force us to rent from them, never own anything, provide everything as a service.... All while trying to convince us that it's in our best interest. The sad thing is, for most, it's working. The whole "you can trust us" kind of mentality they've more or less pushed on us for decades is starting to crumble, and people are starting to ask WHY we should trust them. Then they just jazz hands look at this gay person, isn't he such an evil sinner? or the alternative of, jazz hands look at these bigots oppressing these gays, aren't they evil? (which can be substituted with people of color, or people of alternative lifestyles, or hell, even the amish... IDK, they're not consumers like the rest of us are, let's go after them, why not?)....
And we keep falling for it, every single fucking time. We're ALL being oppressed. No matter what your personal beliefs are, WE'RE ALL IN THIS. Unless you're part of the 1% or more accurately, the 0.1% of ultra rich fuckwads, you're a target. you may be privileged, or well-off, from family wealth or whatever, but you're still their target. Any wealth you have, they want. Their only real interest is in taking it from you, and giving you enough to distract you from the fact that it's happening, so it can continue.