Post #2300814

2026-05-09 18:59 UTC

The Great Firewall is unequivocally authoritarian Like the tooth fairy, there’s no such thing as “authoritarianism”, but even if there was, you’d have a difficult time making the case that allowing the US surveillance state to operate within your borders, is “anti-authoritarian”. The US is more likely than any other country to harm you psychologically (or physically), coup your government, misinform you, or push far-right propaganda, all based on the information they gain about you and your peers through their spying platforms. India’s most popular social network for example, is Facebook, meaning the US controls nearly the entire social media and information landscape of a country many times larger than itself. You can watch a vid here on why the PRC is not naive enough to do this.

Replies (3)

@melfie@lemmy.zip 2026-05-09 19:54

Most of us on Lemmy regularly criticize the US and big tech, so no disagreement there. Yes, we all know the US is a corrupt, warmongering, exploitative, profiteering country and that both our government and our oligarchs are plundering the world for their own profit while the average US citizen is seeing their quality of life continually wane with each passing decade. The US is for sure authoritarian with the collaboration of big tech and 3-letter agencies to spy on citizens, and also the regime change wars that destroy sovereign nations and install leaders more favorable to US oligarchs. Meanwhile, the quality of life and wealth for the average citizen in China has increased in many respects. That doesn’t mean the Chinese government and Chinese oligarchs aren’t also exercising an unjust degree of control over their own citizens. The Chinese government surveilling its citizens and tightly controlling the flow of information is not being done out of benevolence. I just called what the US does authoritarian, so how would that not apply equally to China? Or is there another term you’d prefer?

Open ##2300813
@yoissy@lemmy.world 2026-05-09 21:28

Thank you for claiming that authoritarianism literally does not exist. It makes it very easy to know that you are a fundamentally unserious person who I don’t need to listen to at all.

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@emergencyfood@sh.itjust.works 2026-05-11 16:07

While I agree with the overall statement, WhatsApp, Youtube and Instagram have more users, and a bigger impact on politics in India, than Facebook.

Open ##2455416