So I’ve just been thinking about privacy, and how everyone’s location can be tracked. Then I realized: What about people who have no permission to enter the country?
Like do they just decide to not have a phone, or do they still have phones and just roll the dice and hope they don’t get caught?
That depends on the country we’re talking about. I wouldn’t do it in authoritarian countries. But in the USA or other western countries for example, they usually don’t use their total surveillance technology to pursue minor and ordinary crimes. That’s mainly reserved for terrorism. You could end up in trouble by chance. But I’m not aware of any routines that connect cell tower data to deport immigrants. I’m not saying they can’t do it, they certainly already have the data ready to analyze. It’s just that it doesn’t happen to date. So your chances of getting persecuted are low. And a phone is a very useful device to carry around. (And strictly speaking, all phones leak your position and lots of personal information. If that’s valuable to someone, they shouldn’t carry a connected phone with them. Regardless of the situation.)
It’s pretty naive to believe, after everything in Project 2025, and after everything that Trump has said, that they will not use these powers in their upcoming mass deportations program.
As soon as manufacturing (of which a significant portion is food processing!) starts losing shifts and closing due to not having enough employees they’ll see the shortages and flip pretty fast. Manufacturing jobs rely heavily on immigrant labor because nobody wants to work in factories despite the pretty good pay and benefits, so the only people who do work in factories are the people who simply can’t get better jobs.
Well, if they do what’s in Project 2025, you have a lot of other things to worry about. That’s full on autocracy. Probably no as bad as like in Afghanistan where women are prohibited to go outside… But it’s going to oppress everyone. Minorities and women first, of course. But as far as I read it’s also going to make economy worse. Take away everyones freedom, healthcare etc and replace it with the medieval version of it.
Yeah. It’s terrifying. I think most people either don’t believe it’s going to happen, or don’t grasp just what it means.
I think people talk a lot. Especially politicians and populists. It’d certainly be sad if the USA forgot altogether that the country was supposed to be about freedom and democracy. And not a monarchy/autocracy or some religious Caliphate. I think there’s still quite some sane people around. So my hopes are up. But it’s a big problem, for sure.