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Comment by consoleable | Hacker News Reader

Why have Western countries introduced so many laws that look like China’s? The government controls more and more individuals

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The west believes "Data is the new oil". The west can't compete with China or India in the amount of data their citizens can generate because they are the world's most populous country. China already has a huge head start because it has already been collecting and data-mining its citizen's data. Attempts to make stronger privacy laws and sovereign data laws in many western countries will also impede data collections. But state sharing of data - through 5 Eyes, 9 Eyes and 14 Eyes - along with BigTech data could give the west an edge. (The west already has partial access to indian data because it leaks through lax data privacy laws, ill-thought indian government policies and BigTech. But Chinese data is truly firewalled.)

So yes, you are right that we will see our democracies embrace more and more control over us citizens, limiting our rights, while our governments emulate China. This is unfortunately because the west believes that being a leader in technology is essential to retain its powers.

Two billion dollars of lobbying (i.e. bribery) by Facebook is the real answer.

https://www.gadgetreview.com/reddit-user-uncovers-who-is-beh...

Every government is preparing for the Third World War, which requires controlling the information infrastructure to enable domestic counterintelligence operations.

I can only speak for the USA, but the first-past-the-post voting plus a very strong bias towards rural areas and former slave-owner states, results in a government that poorly represents any of its constituents.

I don't know if even right-wingers like this age verification crap, maybe they put up with it from Republicans so they can vote against abortion and I put up with it from Democrats so I can vote for abortion.

Of course, if you vote for a third party, you're spoilering your side. Every country is a group project run by underpaid people to try to please millions of uninformed haters. Still better than dying of dysentery, I guess.

Vote with your feet, with an American passport you can choose from a multitude of countries each offering the politics of your choice. You can even mix and match.

Many of the red states are passing age verification laws to view porn sites. However 100% of the sites are either ignoring the laws if they are not in the US or easily accessible via a VPN.

Because the West no longer competes with USSR.

It competes with China. But it's not like we can easily switch countries because of stupid laws, so what remains is to challrnge them. It only gives the wrong ideas to other wannabe autocrats.

I can get you residency in a number of countries in about 30 to 60 days. It’s remarkably easy to change countries an American friend of mine has over 15 residencies leading to over 10 passports. No citizenship by investment non sense either.

Will this really do any good when this kind of legislation magically appears through lobbyists simultaneously across the West? Let's not forget that blocks like the EU also have significant bullying power via trade policy.

> 15 residencies leading to over 10 passports

Unlikely, considering most places require you to fulfill the granted residency by actually physically being there.

And are these even places you'd want to live?

only in the global north who want to you to spend half your time slaving for them. in the countries with privacy rights, and where slavery remains outlawed, the residency requirements are pretty minimal.

would i want to live there? yes. most definitely.

Can you name some specific countries?

Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Argentina, Colombia, Kenya, Costa Rica, UAE, Palau, Turkey, etc.

Paraguay requires for example 1 day for tax residency, 1 day every year for temp and 1 day every 3 years for permanent.

Because the internet became a shithole.

I miss the old internet of mailing lists and websites with blinking gifs and "webrings".

I really do.

I have seen lots of webrings recently. Maybe they are coming back.

The only western country left is Paraguay, maybe Israel too.

“The west” is now the global north, it’s mostly 3rd world countries dying of old age and going bankrupt in the process.

It's weird to see a North-African country let by a man investigated for war crimes and genocide, country that recently passed death sentence laws only for the indigenous population only, suggested as the last bastion of the western civilization?

I'm very happy my country is not bundled together with.....that.

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