>>2123
Okay, now I know you're just full of shit. For the most obvious parts:
>If you want to use a gaynigger circlejerk connected to your phone number like rizon or discord
Rizon, being old internet, obviously doesn't require a phone number or any other identifying information. Not sure if Rizon accepts Tor connections (I know some servers do) but your IP is the only info they have on you.
>Google pushes nothing (successfully/universally).
Chromium-based browsers have a well over 70% desktop market share; if they push something hard enough others will implement it. Or are you saying you use a >1% market share browser without WebP/WebM support (typically via Google's own library, which coincidentally had a remote code execution exploit found recently)? Simultaneously ReCAPTCHA is becoming increasingly required everywhere. I KNOW this because I have to manually whitelist it every time and I notice it spreading to sites that never had it before. (On the other hand, when did you ever need to enable Flash to donate to a non-profit?)
>Browser fingerprinting predates fucking browsers and sessions have always been recorded when accessing servers.
Indeed, but now when you're not fingerprintable enough Cloudflare simply denies you access to the website. That's a massive difference from how things used to be. You used to be able to protect yourself against this; now you are required to expose yourself to be able to access things you could previously access anonymously. On that same note,
>nor are you in any way required to use this software. The answer to "but discord doesn't work without muh chromeshit" is to not use discord. I know that's a bitter pill to swallow for a faggot such as yourself, but that's the way it is.
Discourse is moving to places you cannot access or participate in without personally identifying yourself. How is that not a change eroding our privacy? Sure, technically IRC still works, but if everybody left IRC you have no choice: either you abandon your privacy and remain able to communicate, or you accept being silenced. Similarly communication elsewhere is being centralized by huge corporations working directly with governments against your interests. This is not how it has always been.
Now, for the local stuff: I live in The Netherlands, which used to be a very free and tolerant country twenty years ago, but it's been declining at a very rapid pace.
>Why are you complaining about dragnet surveillance (which has existed in present form since before there was an internet) and then turning around and pretending that incidental evidence isn't being used in the commission of arrests?
Untargeted dragnet surveillance used to be illegal here until last month. Any evidence obtained in an untargeted way used to be non-admissible in court. This has gradually eroded over the past few years (e.g. allowing evidence incidentally uncovered through overly broad targeted surveillance in another case) but now the law is changing to just completely allow it.
>No, this isn't a US thing.
It's definitely not a thing in The Netherlands. Legalizing hard drugs has legitimately been on the table (though never managed to pass). Cops won't look the other way if you shove it in their face, but they're not actively chasing leads on drug possession. The police is understaffed and nobody cares about drugs except when linked to organized crime or international matters. Phone tapping requires a warrant and is used for shit like murder cases. We have a very solid justice system that adequately restricts the powers of police and politicians, except that's entirely collapsing in the digital sphere (which is also gradually having an effect 'offline').
>Publishing wrong views is a crime.
The Americans are very proud of their 'first amendment', a later addition to their constitution guaranteeing freedom from being prosecuted by the government, with some restrictions. The Dutch Constitution has in its very first chapter, as the most fundamental aspect, the rights to equal treatment, freedom of views, freedom of speech and protection against censorship, freedom of association, right to privacy, protection from government monitoring of communications without explicit permission from a judge, and protection from being prosecuted for anything not already explicitly forbidden by law. (And this does not protect from just the government; the rights mentioned cannot be infringed by other people or organizations either.) Publishing wrong views hasn't ever been a crime in the modern history of The Netherlands, and our modern history is full of wrong views being expressed and shocking the rest of the world. This has rapidly declined especially over the past ten years, and now we instead get bullshit scandals (with people actually getting fired, rather than just some debate) over people saying unacceptable things in public.
>They have the excuse to fuck with whoever they want, whenever they want. This has always been the case.
We didn't even have our own wrongthink authority (NCTV, initially made to 'protect against terrorism' (which never happens here) and a few years ago formally changed to 'combating extremism') until 2012. Law enforcement here has always been (and still is for the most part) powerless against law-abiding citizens, but their power is rapidly increasing and laws are becoming increasingly vague and broad.
>You can get a phone number anonymously were you live, right now, today, exactly as easily as anyone anywhere else in the world and much easier than most; like everyone else, you can flash some ecash to get a number you bought and paid for for to use for messages.
Simply not true. Apparently in some countries you can just get a SIM card at a local store and pay by cash, but in The Netherlands you need to completely sign up with your name and address (not sure if ID is also required nowadays, wouldn't be surprised). I also tried to purchase Monero (the only crypto not easily traceable back to you) recently, but it's heavily regulated here and I didn't manage to get any. You'll probably counter with 'but gift cards', but our government insists all cash flows must be traceable, so they recently introduced laws to prevent anonymous gift card purchases as well in a clear example of increasing surveillance.
>They used to kill people for spreading rhetoric that was likely to damage e.g. their business (they still do, if they are the government or, say, nestlé).
I know law enforcement is horrible in many other countries nowadays (apparently the USA has a <50% murder case solve rate now), but murder is rare and very seriously investigated when it happens here, and our law enforcement is fortunately still properly separated from our politics. >95% of murder cases are solved, and if the government or a corporation murders someone in The Netherlands they'll definitely at least feel some heat. Single murders get reported on the national news here (we only have about 1 murder per 3 days).
Maybe I've just been spoiled, always having lived in a country that hasn't yet gone down the drain. But that just makes it more depressing to see it gradually collapse.