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Comment by guard-of-terra | Hacker News Reader

Does our world have even one country that is not awful but at least passable?

(Preferrably one you can actually live in?)

The shrinking life space makes me contemplate suicide.

I understand that feeling too. I feel like the digital world is becoming extremely claustrophobic, and I'm beginning to feel paranoid since the wikileaks and Snowden leaks.

People _used_ to say "Im moving to New Zealand!", but the Mega/Kimdotcom fiasco and some of the most recent Snowden files show they're no better than any of the rest of them.

I'm hoping Elon gets us to Mars and we get to leave the B-Ark behind on this once-nice rock that we're busy destroying for ourselves...

and now NZ customs is seeking blanket authority to force people to give them passwords at the border

Despite this, Canada is still one of the best countries to live in, IMO. It's still safer and more free than virtually any other country in the world (including the USA). The only lack of freedom is the possibility of being shipped in handcuffs to the USA if you do something that is perfectly legal in Canada but illegal in the USA (mailing cannabis seeds or running an online gambling business for example). However even that slight lack of freedom isn't really an issue for the vast majority of people.

The problem here is: most of people on HN are statistically improbable. Snowden is very improbable. We're not "the vast majority". We're a minority.

I can no longer assess my own security in this world. What if the country I reside in decides to go after my kind of minority?

I think people like Snowden are a very small minority even on HN.

Anybody who uses bitcoin, tor or have encrypted disks can easily become a target.

Not meaning Canada specifically, but one twist in a law and you're nailed. You have no rights when it comes to digital.

If you're not doing anything illegal with tor or encryption, you shouldn't have anything to worry about (in Canada anyway).

Iceland and the Netherlands have pretty decent records on this sort of thing.

The Nordic countries in general are pretty good. The Netherlands is good as you point out. No place is perfect, but these are ok.

I suspect Julian Assange has a different opinion about Sweden, one of the usually-referenced "Nordic countries".

(I guess that sill gives your statement an 80% correct rating, making qualifier "in general" allow it to still be valid...)

Yeh, but is Assange's view on Sweden influenced by a general fear of being deported to the US, or fear of being found guilty of sexual offences?

Why worry about one specific fear when a lot of other frivolous claims can be thrown at you at any time?

If you're actually contemplating suicide (and just making an insensitive joke), you should talk to someone bro.

Am not I already?

The problem is not in suppressing impulses, but in finding a way to live a satisfactory life. Which is becoming harder and harder. Rationally, why continue living if you feel under water most of time?

I find it particularly hard to keep my head up with this sort of thing too.

What you're saying isn't untrue, but I haven't found a particular solution to any of it.

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