"Social credit" is a bland phrase in English. What does it even mean? The slight rise in status you experience after throwing a party?
In China, however, the term — 社会信用体 shèhuì xìnyòng tǐxì — while also vague, refers to a ranking system used by officialdom to reward or punish citizens based on their behavior. It is not a single score, but an ad hoc, varying assemblage of carrots and sticks the totalitarian government deploys to keep 1.4 billion citizens in line.
In 2018, then Vice President Mike Pence warned about China’s social credit system.
"China has built an unparalleled surveillance state, and it’s growing more expansive and intrusive," Pence said. "By 2020, China’s rulers aim to implement an Orwellian system premised on controlling virtually every facet of human life — the so-called 'social credit score.' In the words of that program’s official blueprint, it will 'allow the trustworthy to roam everywhere under heaven, while making it hard for the discredited to take a single step.'”
Be a good party member, don't cause trouble, and your score rises. You can rent a bike without a deposit, or get higher placement in a dating app. However, if you complain to co-workers, post snarky comments online about official policies or, Mao forbid, attend a protest, your social mobility score will plummet. Suddenly, you have trouble boarding a train or airplane.
That echoed ominously with one aspect of the ongoing ICE clashes in Minneapolis. One protester, Nicole Cleland, said in a declaration supporting a federal lawsuit against the Department of Homeland Security, that ICE agents, whom she did not know, nevertheless called her by name, thanks to facial recognition programs they use. Three days later, she received an email from Homeland Security, saying her membership in Global Entry, designed to speed fliers through TSA airport checkpoints, had been suspended.
"I travel frequently," wrote Cleland, a director at Target Co. "I am concerned that I may experience other complications while traveling stemming simply from the exercise of my rights." Cleland, 56, had not committed a crime and didn't pose a threat beyond showing up and exercising her Constitutionally protected right to protest a policy which she, and the majority of Americans, find cruel and destructive. President Donald Trump said he was going to go after murderers and rapists. He did not promise to send masked thugs rampaging through Home Depot parking lots, accosting American citizens trying to pick up a cordless drill.
With cherished freedoms fluttering to earth like maple leaves in a November gale, it might seem odd to focus on this particular bit of oppression. But as horrifying as it is to be shot 10 times for recording something on your phone, most of the general public does not attend protests, so their risk of being murdered by ICE is still low. However, they might post something on Facebook. Or send a text to a colleague. With technology, the ability to oppress increases exponentially. China has an estimated 500 million public surveillance cameras, one for every three people. And while those were of limited use when government drudges had to monitor them, facial recognition software changes all that.
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As Neil states, “With technology, the ability to oppress increases exponentially.” There’s a recent article in the Washington Post whose introductory line is this: “In October, a retiree emailed a DHS attorney to urge mercy for an asylum seeker. Then DHS subpoenaed his Google account and sent investigators to his home.” The article is “Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon.” I’m not going to place a link here since it has a paywall. But if you read the WaPo, through your library or subscription, it’s worth reading. It couples with Neil’s column as it further shows how our freedom of speech is in direct danger of “fluttering to earth like maple leaves in a November gale,” as Neil so eloquently states. This post and this article show stunningly scary scenarios right in front of us.
ReplyDeleteSorry—forgot to put my name. I’m. Becca.
DeleteGift link: https://wapo.st/4tije5J
DeleteGift link: https://wapo.st/4tije5J
DeleteA chilling read.
Palantir. Peter Thiel, and his bought-and-paid-for robot vice-president. This is all like a nightmarish version of Man from UNCLE or Austin Powers. Turns out the world really is run by an evil cabal of the richest, most powerful people, led by an evil Russian mastermind bent on destroying liberal democracy and society. Their meeting place was literally a tropical island where they engaged in ritual child molestation. I wouldn't be surprised if Epstein Island had a mountain shaped like a skull.
ReplyDeleteThank you for this wake-up call, for sounding this alarm. I truly fear that our country will soon be fully as bad as the places our ancestors fled from. Resist. Protest. And damn it, VOTE!
ReplyDeleteElmo hasn't stopped production on several Tesla models because of his getting all that info on us.
ReplyDeleteThat lunatic actually believes he can change over to making household robots we all want to buy to have to do our chores around the house.
of course, then he'll use that info to have the robots smother us to death in our sleep, as he thinks Asimov's Three Laws of Robotics are a pathetic joke.
The Three Laws, presented to be from the fictional "Handbook of Robotics, 56th Edition, 2058 A.D.", are:
A robot may not injure a human being or, through inaction, allow a human being to come to harm.
A robot must obey the orders given it by human beings except where such orders would conflict with the First Law.
A robot must protect its own existence as long as such protection does not conflict with the First or Second Law.
still reading, but "Mao forbid" is incredible.
ReplyDeleteI will tell you, this piece is absolutely horrifying. Mostly because we are five to 10 years past where everyone thinks we are.
ReplyDeleteStarting this past summer, and congealing over the past month, it is clear to me how irredeemable republicans are. Per your mention of Mike Pence, where is his objections to what is happening? Where is his defense of Ms. Cleland?
Yesterday's air was filled with republicans literally saying "i can't prove that there was election fraud, but i believe there was" and no major news organization did a damn thing about it. As far as I am concerned, Mike Johnson and Tommy Tubberville should not be allowed to represent Americans, let alone be given the stage to spout heinous unfettered anti american lies.
I am starting to believe that there is no democracy left to save, the question now is can we restart a/our/the democracy at the midterms or was 2024 the end.
I’m in big trouble
ReplyDelete"Government is traditionally a counterbalance to big business, not its handmaiden."
ReplyDeleteHahaha...
Since when?
Point taken. But you know, child labor laws, clean food act, that sort of thing. Better than we're doing now.
DeleteYet, Pence embraced the ankle, thigh and upper half and continues to support all in the US that he chastises about China in the name of his version of God.
ReplyDeleteSpot on, Mr. S.
ReplyDeleteAnd I hope no one here went to see that joke of the Melania docu.
Yes, yes it is really happening and for the large part its due to the patriot act. many of which conditions were set to sun down during the previous administration and congress instead decided to broaden many of the onerous government powers set out in this legislation.
ReplyDeleteCouple this with the rapidly expanding ability to sort through the data collected due to private sector R&D focused on maximizing profit garnered from data collection and you have a very powerful surveillance state.
As for musk he's profiting enormously through government contracts once again put in place by the previous administration for his work attempting dominate space.
Paul: Renewed, increased, expanded by this administration while setting loose Musk's doge hyenas to tear apart all departments while allowing them to pillage all private citizen information for his personal, corporate and non-judicial government use. But good point. The previous administration bears the responsibilty for cracking open the door, not the ones who flung the doors wide and ushered them in with shouts of joy!
DeleteLet's not forget the right-wing Republicans also controlled the legislature during the previous administration. It's the Democrats' fault we have the current administration. They failed to invoke mass arrest, foreign incarceration and deportations regardless of legality of the Jan. 6 insurrectionists. It proves they are weak. The weak are always to blame.
DeleteIs it just a coincidence that only two people have commented on this public forum (as of 12:38 PM), and that one of them is anonymous?
ReplyDeleteMy fault I was occupied from 10 a.m. on, and couldn't post them until now.
DeleteBy 2031, I won't be flying to Mexico, or probably anywhere else. if I'm still breathing, I will be turning 84, and staying home even more than I already do. But the fact that they can call protesters by name--and then revoke their flying privileges in a day or two-- is one of the most chilling things I've heard about in a long time.
ReplyDeleteOrwell was clueless about the coming surveillance technology, which wasn't even science fiction in 1950. How many tens of millions of cameras do WE have? Facial recognition will soon be employed by them, as in Cina. That's the wave of the future. And somewhere, there is probably already a Room 101 by now, where dissidents will sell out their comrades under torture: "Do it to Julia! Do it to Julia!"
Americans have already had dossiers for decades. Credit histories, banking histories, employment data, living situations, car rentals, travel records, phone tracking, and so much more. The days of changing your name and starting over, or flying under the radar, are long gone.
Orwell had the basics down, but he had only scratched the surface:
"There was of course no way of knowing whether you were being watched at any given moment. How often, or on what system, the Thought Police plugged in on any individual wire was guesswork. It was even conceivable that they watched everybody all the time. But at any rate they could plug in your wire whenever they wanted to. You had to live--did live, from habit that became instinct--in the assumption that every sound you made was overheard, and, except in darkness, every movement scrutinized."
Are we there yet? And if not, then how soon?
I used to read grizzes comments from the perspective that after living my 60 something years in a country free of war that war was a fantastical notion. now im starting to think maybe we could be headed towards it.
ReplyDeletethe feds kill a few more people. a couple feds get killed and suddenly its the Sudan
and I brought children into this world? what was I thinking?
And now that fool Speaker of the House is explaining the bible to the Pope:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.irishstar.com/news/pope-leo-maga-bible-trump-36668468
I dislike Speaker Johnson and his perverted christianity, but why not challenge the pope or any other religious interpreter, esp. the powerful ones? The popes quite a chucky ducky history.
DeleteI will probably leave my phone at home when I attend the "no kings" protest on March 28, even though it hardly matters at this point. My social credit score may be incomplete, but what they've already hoovered up on me is damning enough.
ReplyDeleteI read that the people of Minneapolis have been nominated for the 2026 Nobel Peace Prize by The Nation magazine. That made my day.