The Scouring of the Shire

The ghastly "broligarchy" emanating from Silicon valley

A friend of mine recently became a naturalized citizen after growing up in Turkmenistan. Her homeland currently operates under what could be described as a technocratic authoritarian surveillance state. My friend had – like all of Turkmen –incredibly restrictive internet access, and all of our conversations were exchanged through encrypted messaging even though they were benign conversations between loved ones. It was horrifying to witness how living in this kind of oppression had impacted her mental health. As you can imagine, the government used this kind of surveillance and censorship tactically to subvert political freedom and silence dissent; such that the government ignores requests from human rights NGOs like Amnesty International. Although this may seem extreme, I believe it’s important to bear in mind the potential plans of the US’s current regime.