I have seen a number of
people online who say that keeping your net surfing private is essential and
that you should encrypt all of your files and your net traffic to do
so.
Well, I don't see
how is this supposed to work: Why do these folks assume that the
spook agencies haven't already got ways to see through your
encryption systems and easily read whatever you are trying to hide?
They have plenty of money and manpower to do this and a very big head
start on you and any other geek who might want to try it. They also
already own the server farms and the big data corporates.
I also don't see why
this is essential, unless you are doing things you feel guilty (or at
least nervous) about over the net. Oh yes – if
you really want to do naughty things, why not just not
do them over the internet? You know, the old fashioned way?
Censorship is
increasing thanks to some truly insane legislation in various places
that now appears to permit any old dropkick with a grudge and a big mouth to accuse anyone of
copyright infringement or "hate speech" resulting in the big providers e.g. YouTube
blocking your content while the accused has apparently no way to
disprove this and must appeal to the complainant to get the block
lifted.
Until recently I
watched a lot of YouTube, then suddenly it all disappeared: well, a
lot of the people I watched on YT got disappeared, to be exact. I
don't care so much if they were making money off it, but they were
not doing anything apart from providing entertainment and sometimes
comedic critique. Actually the idea of making a wage from YT videos
has never been comfortable for me: that money has to come from
somewhere and if it is not coming from your subscribers then where?
So the advertisers
(which I never saw since I paid for a sub) put pressure on YT to
block anything that might affect their sales, riiight? No, it's not
that simple.
This whole matter
expands quickly into the question of free speech: do we have any? How
much is enough? How much is too much? On the one hand I think free
speech is important since without it we are just another repressed
dictatorship – and how do we stop big players e.g. media
corporations, private interests and spook services from monopolising
the networks just to push their ideas?
The
answer is we almost can't – but we can vote with our feet: don't
watch that shite and find somewhere else to go on the net that is
more free and open. Yes, it still exists - at least for now.
I
recently watched a vid on how to set up Tails on a computer - along
with other scandalous stuff about how you are being watched online
etc. etc. but there is one fundamental matter for me: I don't need
or want to tour the “darknet” : I don't need to know how to get
illegal things and I don't have any secrets or hidden guilt for
things in my past or present. I got rid of all of that a long, long
time ago because it only made trouble. Same goes for all of the
fringe criminal people I knew in the past – being around them
didn't do me any good, in fact the opposite was true. Hang out with a
psycho and you could become one too. Yeah, sure the big media is all
owned and they feed whatever the (CIA, NSA or other Three- letter
acronym) or some Corporate tells them – but anyone with enough of
a clue knows its all bullshit. There are still some sources that
report truth, you just need to look for them. Yes, there does seem
to be some faction of nutters conducting attacks on people who want
to speak truth – but that has all been going on for a very, very
long time: those things stay the same even now. It's just expanded
lately and got crazier than before. Apparently Fakebook is the worst
offender here but then I never liked it and I'm not on it so it
doesn't affect me: I was on the net long before Facebook existed and
I expect to be here long after it is gone (hopefully soon).
So it
looks like the shrill voices of fear have won: many of those kicked
off YouTube have gone over to BitChute which would not be bad except
someone here in Oz has decided we should not see BitChute or D-Tube
which were the two touted alternatives to YT. If you look on Wikipedia it
claims that Bitchute is full of “rightwing extremists” - except
that is not correct – instead the people being kicked off YouTube
are anyone who the new "Nartsties" don't agree with. I am not either
“right” or “left” - “wing” and most other people aren't
either – but this pogrom is definitely not sane or reasoned so
don't expect rational explanations of who is banned or why. Some
have managed to get their channels reinstated but I wonder how long
that will last.
In
perspective, I see a fundamental fault in YouTube that did need to be
fixed: people were getting caught up in making YT vids and making a
living off it because YT was paying them on a per-view basis. I
think this was stupid of them.
The correct model is that people
should be paying subs as one can do with Patreon or Paypal if they
see a channel as being worth their money – and of course, then
subscribers can get special content that only they can access. Fine.
But please note that this says nothing about the nature or quality of
content: What annoys the heck out of me is the censorship.
I have
long enjoyed watching wild and varied content related to unusual
subjects such as UFO's, the paranormal, etc. etc. - this does not
make me crazy or even paranoid. Mostly it is entertainment and just
plain silly fun when one looks at how way out some of these people's
claims are while they are completely unable to support these claims
with any evidence – a bit like religion – but for some unknown
reason YT has not only defunded them (don't care about that) but
banned them – and that is what I think is a step too far. Sure,
don't pay them, but why ban them? That's censorship and it isn't even
censoring anything important or threatening to the Powers That Be . .
. . . or is it?
