Hi I'm Vapid, Let's Discuss Censorship and the New Panopticon
The New Panopticon
Perhaps like some of you, I finally made my way over to Steemit because of the increasing censorship on social media sites such as Reddit / Facebook / Twitter. Opposing views are no longer being tolerated in the MSM and evidently on social media as well. We are subjected to propaganda everyday from the establishment media, advertisers and our political class but no one seems to think it is necessary to put a stop to these practices. It is only now, when traditional media is loosing control of the message that we hear about the dangers of unofficial sources.
We are already under mass surveillance by the state, whether it is the NSA collecting all of your emails, text messages and phone calls or corporations like Google and Facebook who track your internet activity and build profiles about our behaviour.
What does it mean to be in a under constant surveillance then?
In my opinion, the panotpticon offers the perfect metaphor. If you're unfamiliar with the panopticon, it was a specific building designed and developed by the English social theorist and philosopher Jeremy Betham sometime in the late 17 hundreds. Developed mainly for institutions such as prisons, the structure consists of a watch tower at the center with a second circular structure, housing the inmates, surrounding the tower at the periphery.
The purpose of the panopticon was that the inmates coud never know when they were being watched, so they had to assume that they were being watched at all times. In essence, that meant that the inmates would control their behaviour at all times.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panopticon
We are facing the same thing in our 'democratic' societies today, the difference being the behavior of inmates is not the focus of the surveillance rather the behavior citizens in a free society is. Reddit now tells us 'what' topics are acceptable for discussion among members of a free society. Facebook is begining to clamp down on so called 'fake news' and it has effectively declared itself the arbitor of what is 'fake' and what is 'real' news.
So, this has brought me to Steemit.
What really caught my attention about Steemit is that it employs blockchain technology. Over the last few years i have made a meager investment in bitcoin, mostly because i believe that blockchain technology has enormous potential in a wide range of areas, especially its ability to decentralize power. My focus here is not monetary, although it is a nice feature and added bonus. I'm joining you here on Steemit because i believe in the vast potential of this platform in the fight against censorship.
PS - I was so eager to get started that i already posted half a dozen pieces, please have a read
Edit: spelling
Hello @v4vapid,
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@v4vapid
Vapid, how prophetic of you😀, you were easily 2 years ahead of everyone, Facebook just purged 800 more accounts today with the free thought project getting axed with 3.1 million fans, Reddit as you already know destroyed all the Q Anon pages, I would have thought you wrote this yesterday not years ago, I truly never seen this coming, I wouldn't believe they would censor people who didn't violated the rules, there is definitely some powerful Tyrants behind the scenes pulling strings with all the major Social Media Companies, Their reasons for Censorship are so far removed from reality, I've researched who is behind the Censorship, and the organizations involved, and to think they found a way to Censor Americans through Corporations verses Censorship through the government. Also thanks again for your support, and taking the time to read my posts, I super appreciate it! Take Care
Cheers @natepower, suprised to find a comment to this post that's almost 2 years old. Actually it's pretty cool. Thanks for checking it out.
This is what happens when we have centralized monopolistic social media. The censorship is not new, it's just being ramped up now. They've tested the waters, so to speak, banning and blacklisting dissenting voices but seems like this time round they opted for a another attempt at a mass purge.
The tyrants behind the scenes are some very powerful and wealthy individuals. I've read that FB teamed up with the Atlantic Council (CFR affiliate) this time but we've seen this on the horizon with previous attempts at banning 'fake news' over the last 2 years. Partnerships with Snopes (lol) and using Google Factcheck (supported by msm publications) the change is incremental but the vice is tightening.
I these fascist attempts at censoring free speech finally convince more people to seek out alternatives like Steemit and beyond.
daaaaanggg, and you only have 5 followers?!
Hoping for 6?
Lol, thanks!
Hoping to connect with some likeminded people.
I wish more people posted stuff like this, thanks.
I'm six...be prepared for discussion and argument.
Welcome! Fuck yeah, you got my vote, anyone who fights for his/hers right to speak freely and not get hearded like cattle by the top 0,1%. Good quality on the post, pics, layout and all too :) Have a good weekend!
Welcome to Steemit! :)) ~ Looking forward to your posts!
Like the content. Agree, it seems the state tramples over rights to privacy in the name of security while leaving the vulnerable in serious trouble.
Good point, I also feel like we're capable of coming to our own conclusions about events gathering information from diverse sources. We don't need to get our information from propaganda mouth pieces like CNN / FOX / MSNBC / NYT / WaPo and we don't need to be told what to think.
who's been in control of the US Government for the last eight to ten years?
The same people have been in control for decades, the shadow government. The shadow government consists of members of the Council on Foreign Relations, the Trilateral Commission, the US treasury, and dozens more organizations. It doesn't matter who the president is, he has no power, he is simply a figurehead and elections are just a pageant show to appease the masses. Thats' my take anyway.
nope...you give them too much credit.
never ascribe to malice what can be attributed to stupidity equally well..
Do enlighten me, kind sir.
tell me...how likely iszit that an all powah full, world wide, centuries old, controlling organzation can exist unknown to all us peasants?
I subscribe to the idea of Stupid.
You can't fix stupid...(it's everywhere it's everywhere)
it's a function of our hardwiring
, behavioral sinks
and the fact that humans have an inborn, inherent need to generalize and seek patterns. We look for patterns all the time and everywhere. We see patterns where none exist if we can't find any. Pattern seeking one reason for our phenomenal success surviving. but it has it's drawbacks...conspiricies everwhere...and religion.
I mean..SOMEONE has to be responsible?
There MUST be a meaning...mustn't there?
Hey @v4vapid! Welcome to the coolest place on the internet. I'm serious, it is. I've been here just under two weeks and it is NOTHING like facebook or any other social media. It has the community feeling you should be feeling on a media site where you actually know people. Everyone's blogs are so unique, it's like visiting new places all of the time. I recommend @nonameslefttouse for great visual art, overall hilariousness and a good deal of fucks thrown in whenever a hint of censorship rears it's head. @therealpaul thinks way outside the box, his posts are great. Based on your intro, really good by the way, I think you'd like @freebornangel. @papa-pepper is the man to go say hi to as soon as possible, he's a community guy who hosts contests and just generally encourages and promotes people. If you're into music @luzcypher is the man to see, he runs openmic contests. The music community is still small, but it's growing and improving weekly (especially when I get my awesome brother on here) Actually this is the 10th openmic contest weekend and I'm helping promote it, so come to my page when you can, upvote the contest page-the proceeds benefit the musicians and take some of the burden off of @pfunk who is currently paying for the contest winnings. He's also a witness (one of the guys that keep things in check, he's anti censorship and pro freedom so you'll want to vote for him and keep him where he is) and...that should get you started, hahaha! Welcome man, you are in the right place!
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