I saw this on MSNBC yesterday…
… and then looked at the NY Times article whch was being discussed here (subscription).
Several worst case scenarios occurred to me should Trump decide to go beyond using the data by combining all federal databases which are collected to round up immigrants, but also ways the government could use the vast amount of information they have access to in order to enable them to go after all of his enemies.
Consider how much information is accessible about everyone in the country here legally or not. You would have to be living totally off the grid not to have information about you and your way of life in numerous computer databases. Think about their combining them all and using AI to decide who would be on an enemies list and then taking action to do things to make them, this means you and me, less of a threat.
In effect, they could disarm you.
They could do this literally by confiscating your firearms since, unless you got them illegally, they have a record of this. If you’re a journalist, even a lowly Substacker like me, they could raid my house and grab up my laptop. That would disarm me, at least temporarily until I could buy a new one. Then again, before I could even post a new Substack they could be ready to get it since unless I paid cash they could be waiting for me before I got home from the Apple Store.
They could even harass you to drive you as crazy as possible.
I don’t want to come across as paranoid (okay, I already sound paranoid), but I’ll share a personal example. I am still trying to convince the IRS to stop sending me notices that I owe them several thousand dollars which I already paid them.
I’ve removed identifying information in the picture below, but who wants to keep getting letters like this when you’ve paid the IRS and have the bank record to prove they cashed the check? I am lucky that my accountant is working to deal with this, but other people don’t have a professional to help if it happens to them.
Here’s another personal example. If you have an automobile theft deterrent like I do, they not only can follow where you go on a map but can see what you are seeing. Below is where I went yesterday.
If they, the omnipresent “they,” want to make your life more miserable than they already have, the government has ways to do it. Just knowing how much they know about you can make you feel vulnerable.
I have a friend who has posted about a dozen political Substacks (not my Substack friend Sabrina Haake, a major Substacker who doesn’t flinch at danger) but an in-person friend who told me that she hestitates when she posts about politics worrying about how this could get her in trouble. I assured her that I will be sent to El Salvador well before she is. I am not sure today’s Substack will be reassuring to her.
They, again the “they” that is watching us, have ways to see what you buy, where you go out to eat, what you do for enterainment, who you follow on social media and what you post there, and who your online friends are and what they post.
In essence, they can discern much of what you think about and what you believe. They haven’t planted chips in your brain though Musk promotes his Neurolink which if, something like this was mandated, we would end up with a science (non-fiction) dystopia where Big-Bigger-Biggest Brother would not only know whether you were thinking treasonous thoughts, but when a small explosive was added to the chip the government could end your life.
How scared is it realistic to be?
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