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[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 132 points 1 year ago

... wtf is going on over there... What kind of douchebags did you guys elect? I mean, I'm American, I know I can't throw stones here, but y'alls were better than that. You like, wisely stood against our 9/11 invasion and we probably should've listened.

But, wtf?

btw, if anyone was too lazy to dig, this publication is a nigerian newspaper that actually seems legit. Founded in 2020, so pretty new still. Looking at their front page they mostly just do local reporting. Has had run-ins with local power.

[-] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 88 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

We elected him as the "last rempart to the extreme right". Turns out he and his cronies are corrupted authoritarian fucks. Their shit social and economic policies are opening a highway to the actual far right in the near future, most likely 2027.

[-] baked_tea@lemmy.world 18 points 1 year ago
[-] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 17 points 1 year ago

More like shitty electoral system that facilitates the choice of a lesser evil instead of the choice for the best candidate.

[-] Fredselfish@lemmy.ml 9 points 1 year ago

Sounds like the United States.

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[-] Pili@lemmygrad.ml 43 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

The last election was a shitshow.

As usual, the younger generation didn't bother voting, and the older one voted en masse for conservative candidates because they are those our media push for, while at the same time slandering progressive ones.

In the election runoff, we had the choice between an openly fascist candidate from a party literally founded by former Nazis, and a "light fascist" one that people were seeing as the lesser evil. Though it's pretty obvious now that his fascism isn't so light (he openly admires Petain, a french leader who collaborated with Nazi Germany), and I hope people will remember that for the next election and understand that voting for a democratic candidate in the first turn if very important.

[-] alliswell33@lemmy.sdf.org 27 points 1 year ago

Weird how this sounds alot like what's happening in the US. Almost like fascism is encroaching all acrost the world as it crumbles.

[-] Pili@lemmygrad.ml 25 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Yeah, it's happening all over western liberal democracies. Inflation is going crazy and wealth inequalities are growing at an alarming rate. Because of that, people in power are afraid of a popular uprising, and they would rather see fascists rise to power and protect capitalism, than an economical shift to the left and lose some of their wealth.

It happened many times before. The more commonly known examples being:

  • Prominent industrialists and agricultural landowners providing financial support to Mussolini's party because they feared the rise of socialism, and saw in him a means to counter it.
  • German industrialists who were fearful of the rise of the Communist Party and provided financial support to the Nazi party.
  • Spanish landowners and businessmen who were alarmed by the social and economic reforms of the Second Spanish Republic and supported Franco's rise to power.

History tends to repeat itself.

[-] thoro@lemmy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

Scratch a liberal...

[-] Candelestine@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago

To add to this, it would simply be remiss for any actual rival of the west to not attempt to stir their democracies against them.

It's a fundamental weakness that only representative governments have, and authoritarians would simply be stupid not to target it. It's very inexpensive to operate in the modern information space.

I mean, we got all these checks and balances in the first place because our systems are fundamentally very vulnerable. If you'd like a story on a less-secure system, look into the fall of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.

I mean, in the craziest of crazy scenarios, we could wind up with civil wars. Wouldn't there be some folks out there that'd just love to see that? You think they can't make bots, produce content, hire cheap labor?

[-] Pili@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 year ago

Oh yes, voter manipulation is very concerning. Even the simple fact that foreign powers can legally finance a candidate for another country's presidential election is absolutely crazy to me.

But I think there is something even worse than that:

  • When participation is so low that barely 50% of electors cast a vote, with one category of people (the elderly) being massively over-represented.

  • When there is no possible recourse if the majority of electors isn't satisfied with their options, and blank ballots aren't even accounted for.

  • When the main platforms where campaigning happens are all owned by and handful of billionaires, who can choose to present in a good light the candidates that will be the most favorable to them, and do the opposite for others.

  • When political campaigns are funded privately (and as I said, sometimes even by authoritarian foreign powers), those who favor billionaires being again at a massive advantage.

The game is so strongly rigged, I'm surprised that the general population still widely considers us democracies. Starting by reforming our electoral systems would do a lot of good and would be a lot simpler than trying to stop social media bots in my opinion, even though we should also tackle that issue.

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[-] CanadaPlus@lemmy.sdf.org 11 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Recently I read it's actually worse in Europe, because the far-right has noticeable youth support, unlike here where it's proportional to age.

That makes me very, very nervous.

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[-] sovietsnake@lemmygrad.ml 7 points 1 year ago

As far as I know in the Global South we have a wave of left wing governments, maybe you forgot white people is not the world.

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[-] Count042@lemmy.ml 13 points 1 year ago

You know that America just... does this, right? No bill, no law... In fact it was the first to do this at all. It's why in crime shows they remove the battery (from phone where you still can, of course.)

[-] SheeEttin@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

No, the "Patriot" Act did authorize stuff like this in the US. There was also the "Freedom" Act, and generally this is all FISA stuff that has very low standards for what's allowed.

It is not legal for police to spy on citizens via their phone cameras in the US…

[-] foggenbooty@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Police, no. Homeland security? crickets

[-] Pips@lemmy.film 10 points 1 year ago

Still no. Do they do it anyway? Probably, but that doesn't make it legal.

[-] Zron@lemmy.world 11 points 1 year ago

If I do something, people find out about it, and I don’t get arrested, it’s defacto legal

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[-] ChronoPixel@lemmy.world 117 points 1 year ago

Wouldn't this breach multiple EU privacy laws?

[-] Awthatsnotright@lemmy.world 22 points 1 year ago

This is what I'm wondering.

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[-] lokitkhemak@programming.dev 52 points 1 year ago

This will definitely not be misused by anyone in the government. How on the earth did such blatantly dystopian law get passed?

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[-] DestroyMegacorps@lemmy.ml 50 points 1 year ago

How to make your country burn faster 101

[-] Mongostein@lemmy.ca 39 points 1 year ago

It’s almost like Macron wants to be decapitated.

[-] yogthos@lemmy.ml 36 points 1 year ago

While people in the west have been smugly pointing fingers at China, their own governments did everything they've been denouncing in China and worse. Congratulations.

[-] Bushwhack@lemmy.world 29 points 1 year ago

1984 - George Orwell tried to warn us.

[-] sovietsnake@lemmygrad.ml 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

A rapist, a snitch, a plagiarist, and a racist walk into a bar.

The bartender asks “How’s the new book coming Mr. Orwell?”

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[-] Dr_Toofing@programming.dev 27 points 1 year ago

The article does not mention, how will this be achieved technology wise? I don't know of any universal way that a government might activate these features on a person's phone. Unless network operators/phone manufacturers start installing backdoors. This does not bode well.

[-] Pili@lemmygrad.ml 8 points 1 year ago

I'm wondering the same. Hopefully privacy oriented projects such as GrapheneOS can counter whatever technology they will try to implement.

[-] Jongaros@lemmy.ml 6 points 1 year ago

Patriot act requires them to do so. I am gonna guess they probably will unless they want to go to federal prison.

[-] CalcProgrammer1@lemmy.ml 5 points 1 year ago

Jokes on them. Run Linux phone, Android apps become useless. The PinePhones have the modem as an isolated module from the rest of the phone, connected via USB, so the modem can't do anything too invasive.

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[-] alliswell33@lemmy.sdf.org 22 points 1 year ago

The US has exported it's police brutality and police state to France. They even have the similar right wing news apperatice to convince the populace it's all good. Making Uncle Sam proud 🇺🇸🇫🇷🍟🥖

[-] RestrictedAccount@lemmy.world 15 points 1 year ago

Not every bad thing people do is the fault of the US.

The French can be proper assholes. Look up the history of Haiti and which European colonies purchased the most African slaves.

Then ask. Where did all they go?

France has been burning itself to the ground longer than the US has even been a thing.

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[-] Awthatsnotright@lemmy.world 20 points 1 year ago

The Patriot Act took care of that for us in the US!

[-] beard__hunter@lemmy.fmhy.ml 18 points 1 year ago

I am Indian. Even our douche bag of politicians will think twice before passing such legislation. Of course they will spy illegally on us but they won't pass such obvious fascist legislation.

[-] UnfortunateDoorHinge@aussie.zone 17 points 1 year ago

Do they like, want the protests to continue on our something? They can't be that stupid.

[-] Diabolo96@lemmy.fmhy.ml 8 points 1 year ago

The protests are for police brutality against Minorities. Apparently the shot 17 years old kid was repeatedly hit with back of the gun which made him moves his leg away from the breaks and since it's an automatic the car started moving forward...the rest is history.

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[-] SafetyGoggles@feddit.de 12 points 1 year ago

A Google search for "France phone camera" only gives this posted link and dailymail.co.uk article, both of which are not really trustworthy sources, IMO.

So I'm gonna go with "this is very possibly fake news".

[-] lntl@lemmy.sdf.org 12 points 1 year ago

At least it's happening out in the open? Other states do this without parlimentary or congressional approval.

[-] Munrock@lemmygrad.ml 14 points 1 year ago

Interestingly enough I went to a lecture by a Chinese lawmaker yesterday who said the exact same thing. When it's codified in law, you know what they can and can't do, and what they can and can't use in court against you. When governments just do it covertly and subvert due process, your right to privacy suffers a lot more. She didn't have to point out what Snowden uncovered about the NSA for everyone to know what she was referring to.

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[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago

~~LIberté~~, ~~Egalité~~, ~~Fraternité~~.

[-] SoulKeeper@lemmy.world 10 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago)

Privacy and anonymity is illusion.

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this post was submitted on 06 Jul 2023
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