Tech’s Repressive Dark Side Threatens Us All

What do Iran, China, and the U.S. have in common? More than you might think.

July 3, 2009 - by Tom Blumer
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The tech sector protested at the time that the government’s controls would gradually go away as China’s economy and the people’s desire for freedom grew. Several years later, it’s clear that this is not happening. Instead, the government has intensified its demands for further controls. Though its plan to require the installation of censorship software on every new computer has been delayed,” there’s little doubt that it will continue to pursue the effort. With the precedent of the search engines’ sellout, it’s hard to have any confidence that Dell, HP, and others will resist.

Well, what about Web 2.0? Won’t that get around the statists in Iran and China? The Financial Times summarizes the grim situation:

That [government] stifling of web freedoms that many people around the world take for granted [is] being accompanied by more novel means of combating cyber opponents. Those methods range from directing stealthy technological attacks that shut down dissident websites to unleashing swarms of paid commentators to argue the government position on supposedly independent blogs.

Both carry the added attraction of deniability: many regimes are employing advanced repressive techniques that are hard to identify in action, let alone circumvent. At a time when new communication technologies, from text messaging to Twitter, promise to put greater power in the hands of the individual, these techniques are having a chilling effect. Internet experts from more open societies fear that this will lead to greater self-censorship by organizations and individuals, which they see as the most effective tool of all.

If some of the techniques described seem strangely familiar to some U.S. readers, it’s probably because they’re here — and not necessarily always in light form.

Isn’t a leftie troll in a do-nothing government job or on a “community organizer’s” payroll, with plenty of time to comment or blog, for all practical purposes a de facto “paid commentator”?

Isn’t taking in millions in small, deliberately untraceable contributions during a presidential election campaign, in clear violation of established laws — contributions that arguably enabled that candidate to drown out his opponent — eerily close to an “advanced repressive technique”?

Finally, our president and Congress are clearly attempting to move the U.S. economy sharply away from our leaning-towards-capitalist model — never mind that it is the one that has rewarded innovation and enterprise and has been, for all its faults, the greatest wealth creator and living standard-raiser in human history. Instead, the Obama economy is evolving into one of “gets vs. get-nots.” It benefits soulless glad-handers who can work a government-dominated patronage, grant, loan, and reward system through personal connections and/or payoffs, to the detriment of those who simply want to make a better mousetrap and better serve customers. The “get vs. get-not” model is one that is all too often divorced from the need to actually accomplish or build something of value. The money keeps flowing and the accomplishment seldom if ever arrives.

As the “get vs. get-not” model becomes more dominant, one’s very success, failure, or even existence in business will become ever more dependent on the whims of the visibly powerful, as well as their invisible bureaucrats and apparatchiks, any one of whom might be offended by someone’s expressed opinion, political preference, or even their personal acquaintances. Isn’t the prospect of “greater self-censorship” in the name of continued business just around the corner?

On America’s Independence Day and from that day forward, Americans, and especially their political leaders, need to remind themselves that freedom isn’t free, that its triumph and preservation are not guaranteed, and that technology isn’t automatically going to make getting or preserving it any easier.

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Tom Blumer owns a training and development company based in Mason, Ohio, outside of Cincinnati. He presents personal finance-related workshops and speeches at companies, and runs BizzyBlog.com.

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12 Comments

1. "progressive"watch:

Tom Blumer is right. Talk radio and the internet are, even as we speak here on this site ,the target of Barack Obama and his free speech NAZIs.

Jul 3, 2009 - 4:56 am 2. Bob:

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.

Which country is the only one that offer that non-disputable guarantee in the world?

China?
Iran?
Russia?
Brazil?
All of them?

A new world order under the BRIC (or CRIB) model mean the end of that above guarantee for all and China is leading the way on technological superiority on the Internet. Once secured, every country would follow the Chinese model instead of the American model and that’s a very troubling thought in the 21st century.

Jul 3, 2009 - 5:41 am 3. RJ:

Ah, gangs who wear coats and ties, thugs who use flowerly language and carry velvet weapons. How do they do it?

First thing any smart revolutionary does is get control of education, then the kids, etc. Standard game planning.

Note how the shelves at Wal Mart gun section remain free of bullets. Been that way for months.

Narcissists love power, they need it too. We have had a generation that is now at the controls of government power who have been labeled by others as “Generation of Narcissists” so what do you think is going to be the outcome?

Bullets do what? Lawyers use words, who uses bullets? “Who Shot Liberty Valance,” remember that movie?

Classic arguments seem to keep coming back to teach new generations about living life. Why?

Oh, sorry, forgot about that thing on education, reminds me of the slave/master game.

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:01 am 4. Adina Kutnicki,Israel:

In regard to the premise that the Iranian Hitler and his cohorts(from Korea to China and everywhere in between) have co-opted tech to impose their evil designs, it is interesting to note the following – many of their tech savvy mischief makers learned their crafts at US universities.

One has to spend ample time at two premier science/engineering tech powerhouses in the US-MIT & Caltech-to understand what opening up US schools has wrought.

As a mom who has spent many a day at both universities when visiting my sons, I do not exaggerate when I state that there are many Middle Eastern, South Asian(think Pakistan) as well as Chinese students roaming the campus, particularly in the grad science/engineering programs.Many have access to research facilities, the likes of which are so advanced that a person with evil intent can create havoc on an incalculable scale.

Under the mantle of diversity, multiculturalism, and all other touchy feely names, US campuses have been open sesame to all manner of evil doers.To be sure, added into this mix is the abject greed of many university administrators.

Simply put, when Saudis want ’special’ treatment for the indoctrination of their viewpoints, plus access for their students, all they have to do is wave a bucket load of cash.Unfathomably, even after 9/11/01 the doors to US campuses were NOT closed to certain students, and to the disciplines they study. While they made alot of noise of checking out all applicants as to their study plans, it was just that-noise.

Exhibit Number One should be the case of the Pakistani grad student at MIT who helped facilitate 9/11/01, and until her capture was one of the US’s most wanted terror fugitives.

Now, it doesn’t take an MIT genius to figure out this calculus-if our universities were not so accessible, and if certain subjects were TOTALLY off limits, then the danger would be lessened. After all,this MIT terror cohort learned her scientific know how at both MIT & Brandeis, right under their very noses.By the way, she was a ’student leader’ (whatever the hell that means) at MIT’s MUslim Student Association, a main organization of the Muslim Brotherhood, implanted ALL over US campuses.

On the other hand,while Republican Conservative clubs get almost no help from administrators for various and bogus reasons, MSA is immune from such directives. Stupid is as stupid does….

Now,if the above ain’t a kick in the teeth, a wake up call, I don’t know what other lessons need to be taught to our demented and deluded leaders.

Jul 3, 2009 - 6:23 am 5. X Contra:

Blumer’s article seems to get into black helicopter territory in page 2, except for the leftie trolls probably sucking the gov’t grant teat.

But about China, yes, they certainly are NOT becoming more open. In the #Iranelection storm of late June, I blogged up all kinds of information, and my blog analytics shows that I got all kinds of hits from all over the world, including ISPs in Moscow and Persian Gulf.

Not a single hit from inside the workers’ paradise of China.

I did not notice it until I read this article. Good.

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:37 am 6. Strawman:

Isn’t a leftie troll in a do-nothing government job or on a “community organizer’s” payroll, with plenty of time to comment or blog, for all practical purposes a de facto “paid commentator”?

Oh, lordy. This is not going to be a pretty thread.

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:38 am 7. Butterfly Mornings and Wildflower Afternoons:

Amen Brother and the censorships are becoming a bit scary. I keep noticing small things, and I think to myself did my ancestors notice small things before they woke up one day and said, “We have to run, because we will perish here”?

I see those commenting Nazi’s on every blog that is against big government and Socialism.

Jul 3, 2009 - 12:07 pm 8. Sherab Zangpo:

“…unleashing swarms of paid commentators to argue the government position on supposedly independent blogs.”

Aka TROLLS

And they are not a problem, given their very …moderate intelligence.

But the self-censorship is already here…since we have to use pen-names if don’t want to be attacked by the national-socialist guards.

Ever tried to set up a pro-Bush sign in your yard ?
And that’s the secret of the whole subversion: violence, violence, violence.

That’s why they didn’t charge the black panthers in Philly.

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.

Jul 3, 2009 - 1:30 pm 9. scythe:

Tired of hearing the slur “the black Helicoptor crowd”. Whoever uses it is a useful idiot. By repeating this phrase as a slur and thus a derogation of someone else’s observations and opinions the establishment hopes to deflect and reduce the bite of truth. Everything that is going on today in this administration argues MORE for paranoia than against it. I would rather entertain the possibility of the black helicoptor crown predictions than be blind sided by naivete. In fact everything they have been saying and warning about looks rather tame in light of the Obamageddon we are facing. Detention camps, black helicotors, ad infinitum. By making anyone who warns about the government advancing in this direction an object of ridicule you can ambush the skeptics later. Call it the hide in plain sight theory.

Jul 3, 2009 - 3:22 pm 10. Mike2:

9. scythe:
“I would rather entertain the possibility of the black helicoptor crown predictions than be blind sided by naivete.”

Amen to that. Did not someone say that “eternal vigilance is the price of freedom”? If the economy doesn’t turn around the elections of 2010 will be a real test of whether we will have a fair election in this country. The antics of ACORN do not inspire me with confidence.

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:31 pm 11. M. Report:

American Exceptionalism, guys and gals.
Iran, China, and the United States all
are controlled by a minority, but ours
are sane, and theirs are sociopaths.
Even our masses are capable of acting
in their own best interests, once the
problem is staring them in the face;
Theirs are sheep.
Assume TPTB have a perfect system for
spying on their people, better than 1984;
What could they do with it, here vs there ?

Jul 3, 2009 - 7:41 pm 12. Shine The Light:

AT LEAST AHMEDINAJAD IS IRANIAN BORN. AMERICAN ELECTION FRAUD 100 TIMES BIGGER AND MORE SYSTEMATIC.

Before we worry about Iranian elections, we must remember that the biggest election fraud in the world, occured right here, in the U.S. in an election rigged and stolen by the Demogangsters and their hit men in robes. This is what they did:

1. Put an illegal alien, not a US born citizen, not eligible under the constitution, into the white house.

2. Corrupted large swathes of the judiciary, including some on the Supreme Court, to illegally dismiss almost all cases, by making up lies that the voters had no standing, so to never hear this issue on the merits, and keep an imposter in the White house.

3. Rigged and stole votes (eg. Acorn).

4. Voting machines made in Venezuela were rigged, often in favor of Democrats. (multiple articles in the papers show how the memory chip could be easily replaced in a few seconds).

5. Destroyed opposition by manufacturing bogus manufactured cases against Republicans. Eg. Alaska senator Ted Stevens and the Republican Congressman from Texas. In essence, by turning the prosecutors and judges into gangsters and hit men who carry out crimes in suits and palm it off as judicial processes.

However, the real criminals, such as the Evil Man posing as President, who perjured himself in all 50 states to illegally get on the ballot, walks around free. Not one prosecutor in any of the 50 states has the courage, out of fear of the Demogangsters, to charge this criminal with election fraud and perjury.

5. Stole elections by fabricating votes after losing an election, eg. Al Franken.

6. Barry Sotero, the illegal alien in the White house, engaged in massive campaign financing violations. Most of the demogangsters’ crimes go unpunished, because the prosecutors and judiciary are there, not to do justice, but to work as hitmen for the Demogangsters and to protect their gang members.

We have a totally corrupt system. The Demogangsters have usurped total power, and all 3 branches are infested with their gang members who are on a lawless rampage against the nation.

We must feel sorry for us, not the Iranians. We must never stop talking about the world’s biggest criminal gang who has mugged its way into power–the US government and the Democratic party.

Jul 5, 2009 - 10:10 am

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