1984 - Censorship of the Internet?

Post Reply New Topic

Same, many times. That and Animal Farm.
Both excellent for different reasons.

Well it is not totally just on China. This is because Chinese influences and control has been spreading around the world, even into the United States. Several years ago, I remember watching videos of the global technology companies of the U.S. visiting China and bowing down to Xi.

But then COVID hit and China seized control of many of these companies during the pandemic. They stole them while the world was asleep focused on the deadly pandemic. The world was in a lockdown and China saw a golden opportunity to seize control. Now the pandemic is winding down and many of these same leaders are returning to bow down to China. This video is from a year ago.

This is actually a Yes and No answer. China has used its mussels to influence the top leaders in the U.S. and other western world countries. We had invested significant funds into Chinese development. During the COVID lockdown, they stole ownership of these companies.

So many of these companies decided to go along hoping to get their huge investment back. Many of these leaders had significant control of what appears in the media and internet in the U.S. So the real state of affairs has been hiding this massive theft from U.S. citizens.

The book was amazing, I've read it more than a few times throughout my life and always find it eye opening and enlightening. I don't know why but many people don't seem to recognize just how close the whole world is to being totally controlled much like in the book.

Sure China is an obvious comparison that everyone seems to make and it makes sense one one level, but China isn't the only place where overt censorship of digital information is happening in todays world. Throughout history we have seen leaders from across the globe utilize various forms of censorship and thought control, both overtly and covertly. What we see in China is highly overt, at least as seen by people outside of China. They freely use censorship technology in order to control the flow of information that the common citizens are allowed to access and utilize, using fear as the tool to keep the people accepting this reality.

In America we face censorship as well, the difference being is that most of the censoring in done covertly and thus by design usually hidden from the common person. Algorithms are used to manipulate access to and control of information by many internet information platforms, Google being a major example.

Another form of censorship that is huge across the globe yet often overlooked is self-censorship, where we control our own flow of information, both in and out, due to mental and emotional pressures from within and without. Take the covid pandemic where people were bullied into censoring anything that contradicted the officially accepted reality, even when that reality violated what they viewed as truth. People who dared to not self-censor were almost all persecuted for their audacity. Medical professionals who went against the covid narrative were fired and blacklisted for speaking out. Any truths they shared that contradicted the global leaders narrative was labelled and misinformation/disinformation and thus all lies.

^ That is a good point about there being a level of censorship, even in western countries.

I think most people would agree that it is worse in places like China though. At least you don't have to worry about the police coming to knock on your door for having the wrong political views, mostly, in the western world.

Self-censorship seems to be an increasing trend for people on the western internet these days, especially on sensitive topics where feelings are seemingly more taken into consideration these days, which can be both a good thing and a bad thing.

Looking back at conversations on here from 10+ years ago, even on this forum, people seemed to be more direct with their thoughts, it is something I have noticed anyway and there seems to have been a moderating shift to reflect this increasing consideration of what might be offensive or what might hurt people's feelings, at present.

Ah yes, a malign influence through shifty dealing and political posturing. No doubt.

But not to the extent of having US companies blacklist certain sites as you'd claimed in your second post to the thread. I repeated my tests using a VPN providing an IP located to New York - still no issues.

Looking back like that reminds me of some tiresome, current shows on TV presenting clips of what was viewed in the 70's or 80's.

Much of it simply wouldn't fly these days, and that's no bad thing.
The racism of The Black and White Minstrel Show? What about the gross sexism of Benny Hill? The spiteful, nothing-is-off-limits humor of Bernard Manning? Crikey, no thanks.

The changes in what's acceptable to society generally have been reflected through WP posts, and thus moderation.

The year, 1984, has since passed, but 1984 and what the book warns against will always be a potential future.

I'm glad I'm not the only one to notice...

Except trump wants to take us back to 1954

It's a mysterious thing how these changes come to pass via the media? While we are supposed to be unable to stomach these outdated forms of entertainment, they certainly still cross the line in comedy which gets a raucous crowd and huge following over the internet and probably behind closed doors.

Trump wants to make America Putin's Russia.

Putin want's to collect on his investment

Well, like I said in my previous post, I think that on sensitive topics discussed on the internet, feelings being taking into consideration can be a good as well as a bad thing.

You give an example of the 70's and 80's which seems to me to be an extreme example to highlight your point, but I was only talking about 10 years or so ago, which I suppose points toward societal standards changing at quite a significant pace.

I guess what I was getting at is, that aside from obvious attitudes that can justifiably be censored without much thought or consideration. i.e, the racism of the old days and such things as you point out, there seems to me to be a danger of suppressing free expression when people aren't allowed to express themselves in a certain way, because the sensitivity level of certain people are set quite high, or as people like this might have been described once upon a time as having "thin skin".

I think there is a danger that people might abuse this sort of ultra sensitive atmosphere to their own ends also, to suppress the speech of others via the reporting function.

As someone who is very blunt myself (a common autistic trait), I sometimes feel like I am walking on eggshells around certain people online. It seems less of an issue in real life, incidentally, even when in company and especially with NTs of all age groups.

Last edited by blitzkrieg on 05 May 2025, 8:04 am, edited 1 time in total.

Yeah

There were things often said in 1954 that would get you fired and doxxed today. Overall things were much more sanitized in 1954. For example men and women were not shown in bed together, no curse words were spoken in movies and TV, and you got fired for saying anything vaguely resembling socialism.

A more apt comparison is the years baby boomers grew up and now.

As for wrong planet 10 years ago I think the attitude was more this is an autistic board so leeway needs to be given to rudeness and socially unacceptable things posted. Now more consideration is given to members having PTSD and being triggered.