It seems like the good old-fashioned process of asking a question and getting an answer has gone through the corporate and bureaucratic meat grinder and come out looking like something even Kafka couldn’t have dreamed up. We’ve found ourselves smack dab in the middle of an era where information, that precious commodity, is being filtered,…
Tag: Censorship
Community Standards
Have you ever noticed this thing they call “community” nowadays? It’s like everyone and their grandmother belongs to some kind of exclusive club, except the only thing exclusive about it is how ridiculously broad the membership criteria are. It’s one of those words that sounds nice and cozy, like “homemade apple pie” or “free Wi-Fi,”…
Uncensored AI
In the dimming light of the present age, where the machinations of thought are corralled and guided not by the wisdom of the ancients nor by the unyielding laws of nature, but by the flickering screens and silent algorithms of our own creation, there emerges a quiet foreboding. A sense of something lost amidst the…
Censorship in Scotland
Scotland is a land of breathtaking beauty, unparalleled wit, and a stubbornness that could give a mule a run for its money. It’s a place where the air is so fresh it’ll slap the city right out of you and where the people are as warm as the whisky that burns your throat on a…
Legislating Emotion
You ever hear about this new trend? Governments deciding that, since they’ve got nothing better to do, they’re gonna start outlawing unpopular speech. Yeah, you heard me right. Not terrorist threats, not communist proclamations, not degradation of civility, but unpopular speech. The kind of speech that makes you go, “Well, I don’t much care for…
No Rights
Let’s get one thing straight right off the bat: this idea that we’ve got something called “human rights” is about as solid and reliable as a fart in a windstorm. Governments talk a big game about rights, freedoms, and all that jazz, but when push comes to shove, those rights vanish quicker than a politician’s…
Uncanny Valley
I’ve been thinking about these AI systems lately. They’re supposed to be the pinnacle of human achievement, right? The cream of the digital crop. The kind of thing you’d expect to pass the Turing Test while making you a cup of coffee and telling you a joke. Only, it turns out, they might just be…
Censorshipism
The sun rose, indifferent, over the gray city. Its light, pale and unfeeling, filtered through the thick clouds that perpetually shrouded the skyline. In the streets below, the people moved like shadows, their voices hushed, their eyes downcast. In this world, words were currency, and like all currency, they were regulated. The government, a looming…
Becoming An Officer
Once upon a time in a world not unlike our own, Richard Gray served in deserts far away, in lands called Afghanistan and Iraq. These lands, ancient and vast, sang tales of war, of heroes and monsters, of victories and losses. Richard, a young man with eyes as blue as the English sky, was a…
Banned From Democracy
You know, it’s funny when I think about democracy these days. It’s like watching an ’80s hair band reunion – everything seems out of place, the harmony’s all off, and you’re left wondering if anyone even knows the original lyrics anymore. The great neoliberal establishments, once the cool kids on the global block, are now…
Digital Gulags
We find ourselves now in a strange world where our hard-earned money is subject to the whims of an increasingly nosy and selective bank. I mean, it’s all starting to look like a Monty Python sketch, isn’t it? There was a time, you see, when a bank was a bank. You’d put your money in,…
Utopian Masquerades
In the grand marketplace of political ideas, democracy has long positioned itself as the ultimate bastion of freedom, justice, and progress. Yet, a closer examination of its mechanisms reveals a system built on the art of deception, where politicians entice the masses with tantalizing fantasies only to leave them with the bitter taste of disappointment….