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Comment by chrismatheson | Hacker News Reader

There are a lot of comments and thinking along the demo and gloom lines.

On the "silver lining" side, could be a eye-opener for the population of the UK, that things they take for granted cant get summarily yanked away if they don't actually do something.

And with any luck it will pull up the technical competency of every person using these services (pretty much every adult).

With any luck parents might even be forced to gain the skill their kids already live and breathe and don't think twice about.

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I used to be optimistic that way, but if you look somewhere similar developments happened before like China: yes, people adapted to circumvent their regime's oppression, but the laws never changed.

Since surveillance is only a 2nd tier issue in terms of mind share (at best), it's untouched by electoral democracy. And because rulers automatically support more surveillance, there are no mechanisms for positive developments on that side, both in the UK and in China.

But we did, I've been protesting against laws like this for 17 years now! Genuinely, they've always been trying to implement these laws, and simply relied on us missing the ship one time.

If COVID policies and mandates including the vaccine passports which absolutely paved the way for digital IDs for any action in society, didn't wake up populations around the world, nothing will.

You just need to scare them when there's an appearance of dissent and that's that.

Few people can combat them effectively from a tech and legal framework, for sure, but don't expect magic from nowhere.

Every time this comes up, an accusation with some label becomes sufficient to dismiss any arguments from a person.

Any suggestions?

Everyone with any ability to open their eyes migrated to the US from the UK ages ago. The civilization that exists today is what happens when people too scared to get on a boat live in the dregs of a dying empire.

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