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Comment by Consultant32452 | Hacker News Reader

The FBI literally raided this guy's house and he will probably wind up in prison. Not to mention: Assange, Snowden, Manning.

One difference, which I will grant you, is if you don't have a wide audience the DHS will just tell sites to censor/ban you. Or they'll get folks like Taylor Lorens to dox you so your life is destroyed and you can never work again.

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I don't live in the US and I only set foot in the country once in my life. Is it really an orwellian nightmare with a boot stomping in your face forever, or is it merely a threat that it could become this for everyone, with isolated incidents of different branches over-stepping and being held accountable later?

I think there's some truth in the old joke -- thank goodness the US system is so disorganized; it would be a frightening thing if were organized. One thing the Americans did get right was pluricentric power. Even their three letter agencies are constantly tripping each other up. And periodically providing oversight.

Really, if you go photographing near a military installation in any country you may bring the ire of the authorities down on you. "National security" gets overreactions everywhere. I wouldn't be too surprised if the RCMP showed up at my door here in Canada if I did a stunt like he's accused with the drone. Though I would expect to go free, in the end, if I actually complied with the laws.

Incidentally, I (not a Canadian citizen) once wandered into a Canadian military base without showing any ID or anything. The gate was open and the gate house was deserted. I think they expected the public to wander in though, because they had signs on the highway for the (very nice) museum located inside the base. At another Canadian military base I did get carded at the gate, and told to head directly to the museum.

> with isolated incidents of different branches over-stepping and being held accountable later?

Well, there's not much in the way of accountability, so the other one.

It's definitely not like North Korea or anything crazy like that, but there is DEFINITELY a chilling effect on public discourse because even highly credentialed people get their lives destroyed if they make too much noise against the current narrative. Most people are blissfully unaware of this because they never heard from the censored people to begin with.

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