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Privacy is no longer an option

Wow, the UK is a mess right now.

The UK government is forcing Apple to hand over the keys to its encryption system so that it can spy on its citizens.

According to this BBC story the demand applies to all content stored using what Apple calls "Advanced Data Protection" (ADP). This includes data stored on Apple's cloud patform.

Naturally, privacy advocates are outraged by this move by the UK government and see it as the latest in a series of attempts to marginalise citizens whilst increasing the powers of the state.

Many, many UK citizens I've spoken to have said they now feel like strangers and criminals in their own country after being placed under ever-increasing scrutiny and now living in fear of accidentally making a "hurty" comment on social media that could see them arrested.

And no, I'm not kidding -- neither are they.

Over the weekend, another UK YouTuber known as Silver Fox was arrested for the crime of daring to speak his honestly held opinions.

I really do believe that all Brits should be deeply concerned over the direction things are going in the UK. If they're not careful, "hurty words" will soon fall into the category of terrorism and the penalties will be hiked even further.

We must always remember that the cornerstone of a healthy democracy is the freedom of speech. When that is annexed, democracy fails and fascism is the inevitable result.

For more evidence of just how out-of-control the UK's attempts to quash free speech have become, read this NYPost story with the headline: UK police commissioner threatens to extradite, jail US citizens over online posts: ‘We’ll come after you’

What the hell are they smoking in the UK halls of power?

With Australia hot on the heels of the UK when it comes to controlling the narrative by trying to squash social media and introduce digital ID whilst also phasing out the use of cash, the whole world is looking like it needs a world-war to remind us of how important our freedoms really are.

It's horrifying that war could even appear a more attractive option than peace under increasing oppression from authoritarian anti-democracy, anti-rights governments.

Perhaps we're simply seeing the observations of John B Calhoun playing out within a human population (This PDF is an interesting read on the subject).

Carpe Diem folks!

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