I don’t think they want it. Numbers aren’t in their favor. We aren’t remotely close to Russian or Chinese levels of generational suppression.
But they likely don’t know they don’t want it. They assume they will get absolute power one way or the other because China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, etc have absolute power in their state.
I doubt the Tiananmen Square massacre would have been nearly as effective with the speed at which information flows nowadays. Sure - major corporate media can suppress as much as it can, but millions of people were able to turn out for protests quickly, and think of how fast we all found out about the arrest of two judges.
Against any totalitarian government, the most effective weapon is information, followed closely by communication. I am willing to bet that there isn’t code sitting on our phones waiting for the government to just shut it all down.
I dunno if this is anyone else but me, but, in the US this weekend, I heard a radio advertisement on our local Clear Channel / CBS station that was just a guy without music, forcefully stating that “tariffs are a matter of national security.”
That was honestly so surreal that I wasn’t sure if I had imagined it.
One time I was at the internet place picking up a new router. The internet in the area had just gone down and angry people were literally coalescing upon the store like zombies.
Godspeed to anyone who turns the data off to America
I don’t think they want it. Numbers aren’t in their favor. We aren’t remotely close to Russian or Chinese levels of generational suppression.
But they likely don’t know they don’t want it. They assume they will get absolute power one way or the other because China, Russia, Saudi Arabia, North Korea, etc have absolute power in their state.
I doubt the Tiananmen Square massacre would have been nearly as effective with the speed at which information flows nowadays. Sure - major corporate media can suppress as much as it can, but millions of people were able to turn out for protests quickly, and think of how fast we all found out about the arrest of two judges.
Against any totalitarian government, the most effective weapon is information, followed closely by communication. I am willing to bet that there isn’t code sitting on our phones waiting for the government to just shut it all down.
This means we should encourage more and more people to join Lemmy, Bluesky etc., install Linux and donate to Wikipedia.
When Musk first mentioned something along the lines of Wikipedia=bad my annual donation turned monthly.
I also started a monthly donation. Was previously haphazard.
The government can absolutely shut down the internet and telecommunications. They can also send propaganda straight to your phone that you can’t stop.
Then we put up our own propaganda as posters.
I dunno if this is anyone else but me, but, in the US this weekend, I heard a radio advertisement on our local Clear Channel / CBS station that was just a guy without music, forcefully stating that “tariffs are a matter of national security.”
That was honestly so surreal that I wasn’t sure if I had imagined it.
We need a Radio Free America, operating from Canada.
One time I was at the internet place picking up a new router. The internet in the area had just gone down and angry people were literally coalescing upon the store like zombies.
Godspeed to anyone who turns the data off to America
Wait, two judges?
One in Wisconsin one in New Mexico