Almost the entire western world is going authoritarian. Very worrying trend. It has to be stopped.

From the fact Britain produced Orwell, Huxley's Brave New World, and Alan Moore's V for Vendetta, I figure the UK has always been some shade of "Orwellian".

I do agree. But calling the UK Orwellian is kind of funny, given Orwell's 1984 is largely, if not mostly, based on the UK:

• Like Winston, Orwell worked in the UK as a war propagandist, and lamented that he constantly had to lie and censor facts, but thought it worth it to defeat the Nazis.
• The 'ministries' were entirely based on the UK's, especially e.g. the 'Ministry of Defense' actually being a ministry of war.
• Orwell complained that the UK secret police constantly opened all his letters because he was a commie.
• Room 101 and the Ministry of Truth is basically just satire of the BBC.

As well as cultural changes in the 80s-90s, I think people don't quite realise how much the internet 'escaped' the grasp of governments for the past few decades. By constantly banging the drum of "what about the children D:", governments are finally just catching up to where we used to be.

Old enough to remember how Europeans smugly thought that they lived in some sort of an enlightened and free society.

We are living in Orwellian society, it's just the news catching up with reality.

The UK ain't part of the EU mate

I am not aware of any western country that isn't a police state.

The reason the police state gets worse and worse is simply that our glouriouss western countries shift closer and closer to fascism every day.

Unfortunately that doesn't only impact privacy but also stuff like state repression or presence of state thugs.

To quote very smart people:

OOONEEE SOLLUTION
REEEVOLUTION

Oh yeah, I should post about my arrest

Is this thread about the rising fascist movements? Oh...

Is it about the refugees from their colonies they drown in the Mediterranean? Oh...

Well is it about the pivot from renewables and nuclear to oil and gas? Wh... well what is...

Oh. This is a thread about your online treats.

#1 on lemmy 'top in last 12 hours'

The UK would be one if anyone could be bothered to run it properly.

Not even close to the horrors of an Orwellian society and saying it is is an insult to the characters in those books. It isn't great though, and it's heading in a troubling direction

As an American it's nice to see were not the only ones in a complete downward spiral.

EDIT: wild that there are users pretending to be butthurt by this obviously joke comment so they can farm upvotes from the tens of users on Lemmy

Orwell never could have imagined society as it exists currently.

The EU is using genocide censorship as an excuse to abort all "freedom" laws. A hillarious twist.

how will this "client side scanning" be implemented?

it's, not only worrying, but very confusing.

For the age verification is it possible to sign a petition? I think is not too late to join forces… or anything but not letting them go further.. as of the chat control probably only contacting the representatives. I really hope lawyers and businessmen try to fight it…