The United States on Friday released a U.S. intelligence assessment sent to more than 100 countries that found Moscow is using spies, social media and Russian state-run media to erode public faith in the integrity of democratic elections worldwide.
“This is a global phenomenon,” said the assessment. “Our information indicates that senior Russian government officials, including the Kremlin, see value in this type of influence operation and perceive it to be effective.”
A senior State Department official, briefing reporters on condition of anonymity, said that Russia was encouraged to intensify its election influence operations by its success in amplifying disinformation about the 2020 U.S. election and the COVID-19 pandemic.
Lol if you think the US is a true police state, then you have no clue what an actual police state is. In a real police state, you are disappeared almost immediately for critical statements about your government. While that can and does happen in the US on occasion, try that shit in North Korea or Myanmar or China. Be thankful you are allowed to have a dissenting opinion of the government, because there are actual police states in the world that will scoop you up if there’s even a hint of dissent.
We don’t have secret police, we call them undercover agents.
Please tell the Black Lives Matters protestors who were routinely beaten to the curb and tear gassed for expressing a first amendment “right” that they aren’t under surveillance.
Please tell the Portland protestors who were kidnapped by Trump-led federal agents they are living in a normal country.
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2020/aug/04/bob-casey/sen-bob-casey-said-federal-agents-kidnapped-protes/
I’m sure Snowden is thankful he’s able to live freely after exposing that an international spying agreement was gone, and didn’t have to go into hiding. Same for Chelsea Manning who 100% wasn’t put into solitary confinement and forbidden to talk to the public.
If revealing the truth that your government is committing crimes is punished, you are being ruled by criminals.
Dude I’m not denying any of those are fucked up and outside of what our constitution provides for under freedom of speech, assembly, and press (many reporters were also arrested and had their footage destroyed). My point is that, despite these absolute abominations by the ruling class, the average person does not live under a constant state of surveillance and oppression in the same way that those in N Korea, Myanmar, Russia, China, etc do. Sure all of our online activity, communications, and movements are monitored, at least passively in a database, but unless we are actively causing major amounts of trouble we likely won’t have the good squad breaking down our doors and hauling us off for saying “fuck the government” online. It could be so, so much worse (and quite possibly could get there in our lifetimes, if we keep being apathetic about the state of our country).
There is no such thing as passive surveillance if all surveillance data can be automatically flagged or you have an army of agents trawling through it all. Both things America is doing.
Saying fuck the US government online probably puts US citizens as well as global citizens on lists.
America is notorious for embedding into and destroying movements. This happens to this day.
Also hate to break it to you, if you’re in the US you’re physical movements are also most likely tracked.
It’s pure cope to say you have nothing to fear if you have nothing to hide as you just did.
You both agree on the fundamentals, you just draw the line at what you’re calling a “true” police state. This argument is unproductive.
This comment is unproductive.
We do disagree on a fundamental fact, that America is a police state.
bobs_monkey hypocritically excuses american actions when they would use the same actions committed by non aligned states as evidence that they are police states.
Countering this narrative is productive to my goal, even if I don’t convince bobs_monkey. It doesn’t let what is essentially american propaganda go unchallenged for future readers.
You really need to work on your reading comprehension and probably go outside, paranoia is not a healthy way of life.
What did I get wrong exactly?
My guy what are you doing in your comment exactly? You’re pointing out illegal acts by the government. Do you expect punishment to come soon? Consider how often you’ve criticized the US, and how often you’ve been arrested or fined or disappeared for that criticism.
The examples you mentioned aren’t the norm – and that’s precisely why we discuss them. If it were the norm we wouldn’t pay any attention to them. They’re only newsworthy because government suppression of our speech is news. It isn’t a common occurrence.
To compare authoritarianism in the US to the rest of the world is absolute peanuts. People constantly complain about the government and make fun of officials. We could insult Trump to our heart’s content in 2016-2020, but are you aware of a single Chinese person who joked about Xi being Winnie the Pooh in that time period?
Let’s put it this way, if you can complain about how bad your government is without worries of reprisal, your country isn’t as bad as you may think.