18+ 
Social Networks Could Become Instruments of a New Apartheid
20.02.2018
It is not necessary to watch modern anti-utopic series like “Black Mirror” or “Philip K. Dick’s Electric Dreams” to become convinced that a brave new world is approaching. We are now already facing the monstrous manifestation of liberalism. This includes digital fascism in the name of freedom.
The fact that the Internet, social media, and technology make it possible to learn everything about you is not anything new: content advertising discovers your preferences, your mobile phone tracks your movement, and any technical detail diligently transmits audio wherever necessary.
Something else is interesting: the social side of man is becoming more and more dependent on virtual existence. Without a Facebook page, you might be rejected during a job interview as “unreliable”, and for a too “gendered” or intolerant post you might simply get fired.
In Russia, this is only generally of consequence for those who work in politics or the media. In the West it has become common practice. Friends from Western Europe tell tales of employers refusing to hire people for too “right-wing” statements (criticism of the EU, liberal politicians, or – God forbid! – anti-immigrant/ sexist tweets).
A fresh example: on the fifth of February, one of the audio developers for the game Subnautica, Simon Chylinski, was fired for his “incorrect” views on gender issues. While commenting on a poll on the game’s development and the inclusion of female characters, he said that the easiest solution would be to include a diversity slider – “It will make your character darker, more feminine, and less sexual”, - Chylinski joked.
Supporters of the power that be also found other ‘sexist’ comments from him; for example, about how there are only two genders, and if he had to choose, that he would prefer to identify as a “military aircraft”.
The last drop were “politically incorrect statements on Twitter” on Third-World immigrants to the US, because of which the crime level in the country rose.
Si サイモン@Sy1K1
Ответ пользователю @Flayra
@Flayra @Subnautica we need a "diversity" slider in the options. It will make the character progessively darker more feminie and less sexy
7:39 - 10 февр. 2016 г.
Does this seem absurd? Yes. But they fired Chylinski.
Philosopher Alexander Dugin told Geopolitica.ru about sociological explanations of this phenomenon.
“One of the signs of totalitarianism is interference in the private lives of citizens and control over their private lives. This is a description of both the Orwellian dystopia of “1984” and Zamyatin’s “We” [1]. In such a case, the government does not just try to control individuals’ actions, but also place themselves in the thoughts of individuals.
If traditional governments controlled the body and were content to stop there, we see that democratic governments control consciousness. Control over consciousness is a typical trait of totalitarianism.
In an era of the development of social networks, a situation is created that is very handy for such totalitarian control. People write what they think, what they feel, about their preferences and views. On the basis of an analysis of social networks, it is possible to create a portrait of a person, his or her mental map. The people who manage information from social networks receive an instrument of influence: this person must be fired, this one must be hired. Any post on a social network can be used as an aggravating circumstance in court.
What is more, however, is that the criteria for the evaluation of human consciousness are in the hands of the government. Today, government is not just administrative, it is cultural. This is epistemology: he who determines what a man should think determines mental norms. He who decides the criteria is the one who can use a database for his interests.
This is a very curious thing. With the help of liberal technologies, tracking instruments for private life were created that no totalitarian society could ever have dreamed of.
In other words, we are living in a new society of liberal totalitarianism. Welcome to 1984! This is an idea of not just following the lives of people, but their thoughts, their dreams, and even their hallucinations as well.
In accepting iPhones and camcorders, as well as social networks, we are writing our own denunciations and dossiers. We surrender our biometric data to a passport, and any element of our body and our consciousness becomes an element of the global filing-cabinet. Truly, any person who is in a position of power can use this for his own interests.
Now, we are speaking about individual cases, firings and support, but these are small moments. Soon, these systems can become the basis for a new segregation. The liberals will have a count and decide, if one publication or the other on a social network (or just images and reposts) are discrediting; this can become the basis for ostracism, discrimination, and, eventually, pure apartheid.
Social networks can become instruments of a new apartheid in our society. If a person has made a statement that is politically incorrect from a liberal point of view, this same statement can serve as the basis for his social destruction”.
***
P.S.: from a liberal point of view, you can not only be fired for posts on a social network, but for a personal position as well. There is freedom of expression in America. We remember, how Google fired engineer James Damore, who claimed that there were biological reasons for gender inequality in the technological sector. After his resignation, he notably trolled Google by claiming to be the victim of discrimination against the company’s white employees.
Absurd? Yes. And Damore was fired.
The expansion of social networks will make it possible to exclude you from society even before you say anything, like Damore or Chylinski did. You will just search for “Pepe the Frog” or a kitchen knife in Google Pictures, and will afterwards be surprised that nobody wants to hire you.
In China, for example, a system of rewards and “social ratings” is being developed: you receive a starting number of points, after which information about people is transmitted to a single information centre and processed with big data technology. If your rating is too low, you will lose many social benefits. But this is China. If this technology were to be wedded to Western liberal thought, we would receive 1948.
Brave new world: how many more wonderful discoveries await us…
____
[1]: Evgeniy Zamyatin’s novel We describes an extreme communist-esque society where the state forces the population to live in perpetual observation (by having the workforce sleep and work in glass buildings) and regulates every aspect of their behaviour (from food to scheduled sexual intercourse). – Translator.
Translated from the Russian by V.A.V.
