https://www.businessinsider.com/heres-what-life-in-iraq-was-like-under-saddam-hussein-2014-7?op=1
https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/09/18/us-government-mass-surveillance-isnt-secret
https://www.aclu-md.org/en/news/racist-past-government-surveillance
Government surveillance has long been a controversial issue in the U.S. along with other countries like China. Our country has a long history of spying on poorer minorities, something made only easier due to events of the past 20 years. When I was in school, we had the Twin Towers bombing in NY, and while it was a time for us to come together, the government also used it as an excuse to better spy on its citizens. Security at the airport has also reached insane levels. Much of this comes from fear and paranoia.
Government surveillance is another way that the rich and powerful keep the rest of the populace from banding together. Instead, it tries to make society a copy of the book; 1984. The CIA, if you read the top article, is still hiding facts about the death of JFK. It makes one seem like they had a large roll to play in his death, it also doesn’t help that he was going to cut the funding of the agency while he was in office as well. There are a few more suspicious deaths that are mentioned in the article as well. The FBI and CIA also were monitoring many prominent black leaders during the Civil Rights Movement and many times during the BLM movements. Fear and paranoia is how the government keeps us suspicious of our neighbors instead of making friends with people who are different from us.
In just the past few years, you can see how minorities are treated when they march as opposed to incidents like Jan 6th last year. New surveillance companies are encouraging residents to snitch on each other’s activities and be distrustful of them, so they can turn our country into the country from 1984. A good way to help fix these problems is to get to know your neighbors and talk to them. You will not get along with everyone, but it is important to build a sense of community. During Covid, people of Asian descent in the US are getting hate and being targeted, just like Russians are in our country and Muslims and people of Middle-Eastern descent were targeted after the Twin Towers bombing. Many Russians are against what is happening in Ukraine, and bear no part in what is happening back there, just like with other ethnicities in the US that have been targeted.
That would be akin to other countries targeting Americans when we visit, because our government and military has a hard-on for bombing the fuck out of people we don’t like. Many times this also leads to instability and making it worse for us than it was before we started dropping bombs. Take for instance Iraq and Saddam Hussein. Yes, he was evil, but he did do some good things for his country. There was also a mitigating force against the Taliban. I spent some time researching for a first-hand account of someone who lived there during his regime and posted it at the top of this post.
To sum up, how the government gets more control over you, is to teach you to snitch. spy and fear your neighbor, instead of coming together as communities. I have family who are Republicans, despite myself not being one, and I am close with me community and make efforts to meet people and know them, which is why I run my weekly mutual aid table. Don’t give the government information by putting in surveillance systems that allow them to spy on you; instead, make an effort to talk to and know your neighbor. You might find that you can rely on each other.
America's Failing System 
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