Without art or literature that draws out the terror I don't think most people can really envisage the danger we're all being put in. Without popular consciousness of the problem, it's all the more likely to happen.
People don't realize how deep the shit is becoming despite all these. We have successfully amused ourselves to death. (as per https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amusing_Ourselves_to_Death )
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I'd really like to simply reference a classic movie or book as a conversation ender every time this shit cropped up rather than explain abstract risks from scratch in a less than engaging fashion.
Anyway. This isnt a problem I can solve.
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Even under totalitarian communist rule, the vast majority of population were not political prisoners.
Honestly, 1984 should be enough as it's not a big jump from 1984 telescreens to Google/Facebook.
Black Mirror is just an example. And the whole “social media ruined the life of this one unsuspecting person” plotline is pretty boring and on-the-nose by now.
"Yeah, I never did feel great about the time that old search engine company renamed themselves "Web", but I guess the name stuck"
"Slaughterbots" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fa9lVwHHqg) shows a terror angle for some of what technology can do (drones).
And, if he writes a screenplay about it that probably means it already happened.
However, it becomes scary when the people with access are much less level-headed. There are people who think gay people or watching porn should require treatment. There have been power changes where people with drastically different views have an agenda to push, and your innocuous "not really that bad" is all of a sudden an imprisonable offense because you "think differently" and you might encourage others.
This sounds like the nothing to hide, nothing to fear argument.
The history allows such a state to construct a narrative where everybody else thinks you're guilty, based on your messages and porn history and so on. Cherry-picking, quoting out of context, etc. This allows the state to legitimise their actions, where torture would fail to do so.
Make everyone fear each other.
It's only not about things that are incriminating. Suppose you were a witness to something nobody was supposed to know about and now you're to be disposed of.
If they have your message history, they have your full contact list, your relationships with them, who you trust the most, where you like to hang out, who owes you money or favors you could call in. You're completely isolated. For sure you can't use any kind of ATM or credit card or find work anywhere they'd expect you to provide a social security number.
How far can you get if you can't buy gas or travel tickets? What do you do for food?
I think it’s a bit unfair to ask someone to throw away their (assuming American) 5th Amendment rights to make a point.
To paint with a broad and nonspecific brush, the UK government has regular surveys asking about drug use[0] which show that in the year ending March 2020, 7.4% of young adults used a class A drug. Possession of that class carries a maximum penalty of 7 years and an unlimited fine, supply and production up to life and unlimited fine.
Even for more mundane things like road traffic laws, if they were fully enforced then the only people with licenses would be those who didn’t drive.
(And are your memes fully licensed from the original copyright holder?)
[0] https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeand...
Yep, I'm fucked :D