Have you noticed the effects of dystopia yet? (lemmy.world)

submitted 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago) by Zeon@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

30 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Hello,

I was with my brother and his group of friends, and one of his friends was talking about various drugs. My brother told him, "Shut up, you're going to put us on a watchlist," and he said it in a serious tone. It felt pretty dystopian when he said that; honestly, it was a bit eerie, mostly because he's being controlled and self-censoring without anyone there, and he seems to be aware of the freedom he's giving up, yet he continues to act this way. I've talked to my brother about privacy and why it's important many times, but he would rather live this type of controlled life and doesn't care because "they already know everything about me anyway." He's in his early 20s.

Has anyone else had moments like this?

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments

[-] Carrolade@lemmy.world 11 points 16 hours ago

Assuming this is the US, I doubt it's that easy to land on any sort of watchlist. Unfortunately, paranoia doesn't require any actual hard evidence.

[-] JoeKrogan@lemmy.world 2 points 7 hours ago

At one time searching for linux was enough. https://www.eweek.com/security/linux-lands-on-nsa-watch-list/

[-] sunzu2@thebrainbin.org 9 points 16 hours ago

The point being that people are doing it to themselves and that feeling is coming from some where.

Obidient population is a authoritarian wet dream... Look at Germany and Russia, they will take anything and then cry daddy made them do it.

[-] Zorque@lemmy.world 12 points 15 hours ago

That was literally the main point in 1984. The mass-surveillance wasn't literal, but meant to be implied by the despotic authority of "Big Brother". In reality people were encouraged to tell on each other. A neighbor of the main character meets him while he's incarcerated at the end of the book, sent to prison because his own children told on him about how he talked in his sleep... and he was proud of them for it.

this post was submitted on 09 Jan 2025

69 points (91.6% liked)

Ask Lemmy

27391 readers

1204 users here now

A Fediverse community for open-ended, thought provoking questions

Rules: (interactive)

1) Be nice and; have fun

Doxxing, trolling, sealioning, racism, and toxicity are not welcomed in AskLemmy. Remember what your mother said: if you can't say something nice, don't say anything at all. In addition, the site-wide Lemmy.world terms of service also apply here. Please familiarize yourself with them

2) All posts must end with a '?'

This is sort of like Jeopardy. Please phrase all post titles in the form of a proper question ending with ?

3) No spam

Please do not flood the community with nonsense. Actual suspected spammers will be banned on site. No astroturfing.

4) NSFW is okay, within reason

Just remember to tag posts with either a content warning or a [NSFW] tag. Overtly sexual posts are not allowed, please direct them to either !asklemmyafterdark@lemmy.world or !asklemmynsfw@lemmynsfw.com. NSFW comments should be restricted to posts tagged [NSFW].

5) This is not a support community.

It is not a place for 'how do I?', type questions. If you have any questions regarding the site itself or would like to report a community, please direct them to Lemmy.world Support or email info@lemmy.world. For other questions check our partnered communities list, or use the search function.

6) No US Politics.

Please don't post about current US Politics. If you need to do this, try !politicaldiscussion@lemmy.world or !askusa@discuss.online

Reminder: The terms of service apply here too.