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Comment by taylodl | Hacker News Reader

It's not our future. It pretty much describes our present - save for #2. I wouldn't say we're to the point where thoughts are crimes. I'm not including so-called 'Cancel Culture' because that isn't an action of the State and as such merely reflects a consequence of speaking your mind - a consequence that has always existed but is now amplified by social media.

The ancient Chinese curse has come true - we live in interesting times!

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#2 was about getting banned from services if you talk about the wrong subjects. I think one example given was youtube banning people talking about crypto.

Being banned is not jail, and misleading people without reprecussions not a privilege.

Our elites mislead all the time without repercussions. We are almost at the anniversary of " 2 weeks to flatten the curve". They lied and children have suffered. No school, no human contact. And it was all proven to be a failure.

You chose to listen to the wrong advice then. Our advisors stated "at least 2 years" at middle of March 2020. Their projections for vaccine was too pessimistic. But that's a bonus, and we still see that vaccine logistics is a hurdle to overcome.

You need to sponsor those who tell it as it is.

That was bad example, there is a short book about people loosing their livelihood over stupid posts on their twitter[0].

To me that is starting to look like #2, not a clear cut but still. Its a mechanism of though suppression at least. You are literally risking you career over drunk tweet you made trying to be funny.

[0]"So You've Been Publicly Shamed" Book by Jon Ronson

The full power of social media may be too powerful, both to the individual, and also possible threat-models to society.

The problem is that anonymous posting also have problems of lack of accountability. So we need to watch out for how to balance and use this power for good.

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