As soon as Trump became the President-elect, sales of George Orwell’s book 1984 surged to the top of Amazon Best Sellers where it has remained for the last couple months. It seems that learning about Statism is all the rage by those who opposed Trump. And no one defined it more succinctly than Orwell: “If you want a vision of the future, imagine a boot stamping on a human face – forever.” However, if they read carefully enough, they’ll realize that temporary leaders of “Big Brother” merely continue the machinery of the State.
Your computer, smartphone, car, smart TV and appliances, and credit cards didn’t just start spying on you when Donald Trump became president. They were put in place by Big Brother over decades, and they will continue to expand under Trump because he’s continuing the manufactured war on terror. Moreover, a new approach to immigration signals that even more doors could be opened up for invading the privacy of travelers and residents alike.
As we learned in 1984, all of the tyrannical measures of control are justified by convincing the people that they’re perpetually fighting a dangerous enemy: “Oceania had always been at war with Eastasia.”
Trump uses more colorful language when describing the bogeyman than previous administrations, but make no mistake, it’s the exact same tactic. Yet Trump’s style has the added benefit of getting everyone to argue about the insensitive rhetoric instead of the concrete actions. I say this because I see some former liberty/privacy advocates going quiet, or misdirected, under Trump much like the anti-war crowd went quiet under Obama.
The lack of any significant improvement to civil liberties was evident as soon as Trump announced his pick for Attorney General, Sen. Jeff Sessions, just weeks after being elected.
As recently pointed out by Derrick Broze, Sessions’ voting record indicates support for the drug war and bulk data collection:
Media reports have so far focused on the possibility that Sessions anti-cannabis and pro-Drug War voting record would lead to a massive growth of arrests for victimless crimes like drug use. Sessions has also been attacked as a possible racist, or at the least, unfriendly towards equality laws. Finally, Senator Jeff Sessions’ past comments regarding immigration have some activists worried about how he will enforce immigration policy as Attorney General.
Each of these issues deserves your time and research so you may develop a more informed opinion regarding Jeff Sessions’ stances. However, I wish to take a moment to focus on Sessions’ views on surveillance and how that view will play into the issues mentioned above. In a new report, the Center for Democracy & Technology focuses on the senator’s voting record and comments on the government’s use of surveillance. His actions and comments should have all lovers of liberty concerned.
What’s more, Sessions has vowed to mandate encryption backdoors for “national security.” During his confirmation hearing he said this about encryption:
Encryption serves many valuable and important purposes. It is also critical, however, that national security and criminal investigators be able to overcome encryption, under lawful authority, when necessary to the furtherance of national-security and criminal investigations.
This issue was discussed further by Broze and James Corbett in the video below:
The government’s commitment to “overcome encryption” due to national security would seem to dovetail nicely with Trump’s Executive Order of January 27th, which went far beyond the controversy of “bans” placed on certain countries. In fact, it is something that will affect all travelers into the U.S. and easily could trickle down into the everyday lives of Americans. According to Section 7 of that order, Homeland Security is directed to implement biometric registration and databasing of all who enter.
While that might seem unrelated to encryption, there is an “interview” stipulation as well that easily could expand what type of data is deemed open for examination. This appears already to be happening, as even U.S.-born Americans have been caught up in the early dragnet. Perhaps the most striking case is that of Sidd Bikkannavar, a NASA scientist who was born in the United States, but was stopped at the border with a demand to unlock his smartphone and give up his social media passwords. There are also various reports coming in from around the country of people being stopped on the street and asked for documentation. All of this is to illustrate that the current administration is clearly interested in further tracking citizens and non-citizens alike – at the borders, as well as internally – and employing the latest technology to do it.
These are fundamental issues for privacy and liberty, and, yet, we are clearly on a path where the government sees privacy and liberty as liabilities rather than guarantees. It’s a good reminder for you to do what you can to limit the government’s ability to spy on you, as well as limit tracking by any other source. Use encrypted chat apps and email services. Get a good VPN or use Tor when appropriate. Buy things with cash and bitcoin. Don’t make it easy for them.
As the fresh new enemies are established, national security will remain the excuse for the Surveillance State to expand under Trump. The government will continue recording your every move and sound through your Internet-connected smart devices, and databasing your information wherever you leave a digital trail.
In 1984, the telescreens that filmed and recorded Winston seemed nearly impossible to believe. Now we carry them around in our pockets everywhere we go, and Trump’s government has access to the data.
Trump is the president not a messiah. He is not going to instantly fix all the problems. He is fighting an ultra corrupt mainstream media, an entrenched bureaucracy, a stagnant economy and Obama’s stay behind network. You need to be a little more realistic.
If Trump is furthering the loss of liberties, he is obviously not trying to “fix all the problems.”
Exactly….he supports asset forfeiture and the drug war. His cabinet choices also indicate his agenda….
HAAHHHAHA Trump is puppet of the system, you trumpzombies are so naive
I am a conservative who has been awake since 1992 and l had hope for Trump but now it is obvious that he is not going to rock the boat of the entrenched bankers and military industrial complex. I am surprised how many fellow conservatives are still blindly supporting Trump. They are as ignorant as the Hillary supporters who refused to “see” her criminality.
I’m glad so many anti-Trumpsters are reading 1984. Maybe there is hope for them after all.
Obama IS 1984 personified. Get a clue. Every time I read a leftist, I am utterly staggered at how ignorant they are.
That’s my point, bud. They read 1984 and hopefully Animal Farm and Brave New World – maybe a few of them will get a taste of that red pill and come around. Work on your reading comprehension.
we will fight against Trump´s hated n yours!!!!!!!1
catalanismo is voting himself up. Any more takers?
well in the Trumpswarm not everybody is a Trumpzombie =)
Well, hee hee, titter. Do you have friends up late with you too? Looking over your shoulder as you all learn to type and punctuate like grownups? Aagh! Considered me bested, noble knight. You win, I perish at the hand of a nobler soul!
glad you accept you are in the dark side, Trump is hatred, racism, corruption, oral diarrhea, dementia, fascism, censorship and doom and the false messiah of the white trash
Punctuation is superficial ,besides Trump´s threat
Decided to vote you down since Steve bannon will soon remove all of our freedoms.
Yep…we just have a different “flavor” of tyranny
I’m heartbroken, George. I have never said a word about Bannon, but since you mention him, he is a strategist, not a decision maker. The big question mark is Trump. Is he playing us? Time will tell, not inferences based on his picks and appointments, and certainly not the predigested pablum we get from the left wing MSM (or the alt-right screamers either for that matter).
Hey Average Joe American, I’m not sure who is using my Avatar and Username or if that is even possible but I am not the person who voted you down. That comment did not come from my computer. I apologize for the comment made by someone else posing as me by using my Avatar and Username.
There is no hope for those that could not and still will nor recognize what was in store if Hillary got
the power!
I think you have that right, Ratnn, but hold your breath on Trump. He could still be just a clever con man with a fairly original P.T. Barnum rap, we’d hate to be caught with our pants down. I thought (and said) well over a year ago, if it comes down to Trump or yet another Clinton (I’d rather vote between a Chia Pet or a Pet Rock, actually), I’d vote against the Pet Rock.
I voted against, not for. But it showed me something: with all they attempted, the PTB were awfully close to owning nearly half of us. They still are, either way the Chia Pet turns out.
She was bought and paid for by the Zionists. Trump had good intentions but the deep state is feeding him false information and propaganda. And there are far too many psychopaths invested into globalism. Trump is going to engage in continuity of agenda whether he wants to or not.
If you can’t see this through his forced cabinet choices, you’re not paying attention. Flynn was for easing sanctions on Russia….McMaster is the opposite..
Wake the flock up!
I heard it said during the last campaign that the choice for voting was the same as that between cholera and Syphilis. Both can be deadly and neither is something you really want.
TRUMP IS A TOTAL DICTATOR A TYRANT, WE THE PEOPLE MUST STOP HIM N HIS HATRED!!!!!!!!!!!!
Unfortunately for us, Hillary would not have been a dictator or a tyrant, of course. Boy, did we ever miss a good chance at better government there. Despite all the media polls, all the media lies, all the cheating (what standing party president tells illegals it’s okay for them to vote in a US election?), their opponent won.
Either you’re new to the Internet, Catalan, new to politics, new to writing in the English language, new to punctuation, or new to adult civilization, or perhaps all the above. Did you run out of exclamation marks on your keyboard? Do you imagine you’ve furthered your impassioned cause, here? (Your Caps Lock is on.)
actually the naive and new abuout a lof of thing you are
Trump is the puppet of the sysstem!
Put down the pipe and go to bed now. This is not a chat room, and I suspect you have school in the morning.
you lazy, angry ignorant low iq, mad angry white trash get back to your trailer, =)
Very perspicacious of you. I actually own a trailer…and a couple of houses, all of which I’ve lived or live in. Tell us about yourself, who you voted for and why, what your living circumstances are, Catalan. Do you speak that language, Catalan? Is that why English spelling and punctuation are a challenge for you? I wouldn’t ordinarily bother to respond, but your vituperative sputterings keep showing up in my email (Disqus does provide that service for me).
I’ve looked you up (mainly because you won’t quit, you appear bent on acting utterly stupid wherever you go, and appear not to know it). But I think you do know–you’re an assigned troll, new on the job, paid per response. Good luck on your new job, buddy. (Incidentally, Hillary lost the recent election, it was in the news, in case you missed it.)
I’m done. Get your handlers to give you a new handle, perhaps we’ll meet again elsewhere.
Thans for the confirmation you are poorly educated, ignorant, loser, bitter, frustated white trash and surely chrisitan =), ahahahahah
We don’t really know if he is a puppet or is being forced via threats, propaganda or reward. The last one being unlikely due to his already wealthy status.
whatevey the white trash messiah has betrayed you! other things are more important to him than his red neck followers and whorshippers
Hillary would have saved us???
Is this meant as comedy?
Rather somewhere between irony and sarcasm. I see nothing comedic in it. I’ve mentioned elsewhere, given a voting choice between a Chia Pet and a Pet Rock, I’d vote against the Pet Rock. A prettily packaged Pet Rock is still just a rock, but with a Chia Pet at least you have the possibility of seeing something change, for once.
Trump is a warmonger and a Zionist. Things are not going to get better. Hillary would have been even worse. The Deep state is not going to roll over for one man.
Wake up people!
The exception to the 4th (according to SCOTUS) is at the border. CBP is above the constitution and are free to do whatever they please. The border station is considered “no man’s land” and not U.S. property. Therefore the constitution is not valid there.
Nice article I can totally relate to the issues that American citizens are already facing, and will face more when this ISP privacy bill goes official. But, there’s a way out of this. If you are truly concerned about your data, then you can hide your online activities by using a VPN. But only get a VPN after reading reviews about it from a credible resource. You can check out VPN reviews from websites like PCMAGand ReviewsDir and pick the one that scores high in most of the areas