Whilst you were all distracted with American politics and the ins and outs of Article 50 being triggered, the government has passed the controversial snoopers charter into law, now called The Investigatory Powers Act.
Edward Snowden says it’s the most intrusive bit of legislation passed by any western democracy, including the USA and will give the government unprecedented access into everything we do on masse.
Internet service providers will store everything you’ve done online for the last 12 months, government bodies can now intercept your calls, texts and emails potentially leaving your devices vulnerable to further nefarious hacks.
Our liberty and freedom has been eroded right under our noses in the guise of counter terrorism, but if you have nothing to hide you have nothing to fear right?
Nazi propaganda chief, Joseph Goebbels, coined that phrase and people who opposed Hitler were dragged from their houses and sent to concentration camps. Some of them were found out because their children, who were members of The Hitler Youth, were told to spy on them and report any anti-regime rhetoric. I’m sure most of those people were convinced they had nothing to hide either.
I’d like to point out that you can already be tried in the UK and sentenced without knowing what the charges are or even setting foot in a court room.
If the Nazi example sounds a bit far fetched in 2016 please let me continue and by the way, if you have nothing to hide then feel free to leave your Facebook and email logins in the comments section.
For 70 years the countries of Europe have co-existed in peace after we eradicated the extreme left and extreme right politics of hate and united. United against Fascism, united against Communism and Nationalism and learnt to tolerate, asi milate and to even love our fellow human beings.
We tore down walls and evolved. We accepted one another regardless of race, religion, disability, nationality or sexuality. We grew the fuck up. For a short while anyway.
Things are changing rapidly though and not for the better. If we’re not careful we’ll be building walls and not tearing them down.
A series of seemingly disconnected events accross the globe look very similar to what happened in the 1930’s for anyone who studied GCSE history or has an interest in World War 2.
Leaving Europe seems innocent enough on its own but every action has a reaction. The far right in Europe, frustrated with mass immigration, are now looking to the UK as an inspiration. Far right parties are on the rise in Germany and France and Marine LePenn, head of the National Front might even take power in France in 2017.
If this ideology continues to flourish then Europe will fracture and eventually fall apart and history teaches us that a divided Europe is a warring Europe, especially if Nationalism is thrown into the mix.
America has just elected it’s most far right government in recent history. The incredible popularity of Donald Trump and his meteoric race to power is terrifyingly similar to that of Adolf Hitler, who also used people’s fears as a device to push the politics of hate with great success.
Trump is now appointing his anti-elitist cabinet of rich racist middle aged white men, some of whom are quoting the words of Hitler’s cabinet almost verbatim. What’s happening is beyond parody and beyond satire and if it wasn’t so absolutely terrifying it would be funny.
We need to stand up, speak out, unite and challange ignorance wherever we see it. We cannot sit idly by and let what is going to happen, happen. Don’t ridicule people who think differently, engage them and change their minds respectfully. I don’t want my kids to ask me in years to come what freedom and democracy was like.
Tear down the wall.
