Has Orwell's '1984' Come 22 Years Later? 1272
gabec asks: "This weekend my mother bought a grille lighter, something like this butane lighter. The self-scanner at Kroger's locked itself up and paged a clerk, who had to enter our drivers license numbers into her kiosk before we could continue. Last week my girlfriend bought four peaches. An alert came up stating that peaches were a restricted item and she had to identify herself before being able to purchase such a decidedly high quantity of the dangerous fruit. My video games spy on me, reporting the applications I run, the websites I visit, the accounts of the people I IM. My ISP is being strong-armed into a two-year archive of each action I take online under the guise of catching pedophiles, the companies I trust to free information are my enemies, the people looking out for me are being watched. As if that weren't enough, my own computer spies on me daily, my bank has been compromised, my phone is tapped--has been for years--and my phone company is A-OK with it. What's a guy that doesn't even consider himself paranoid to think of the current state of affairs?" The sad state of affairs is that Big Brother probably became a quiet part of our lives a lot earlier. The big question now is: how much worse can it get?
Am I just accustomed to old ways? Does the new generation, born with these restrictions, feel the weight of these bonds and recoil from my fears as paranoia? What can I, a person with no political interests--a person that would really rather think that the people in office are there because they're looking out for us, our rights, and our freedoms and not because their short-sightedness is creating a police state--do to stem the tide?"
Hmm... lets see (Score:2, Funny)
Nope, nothing suspicious (Score:1, Funny)
Bring out the tin foil hats... (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Peaches? (Score:5, Funny)
Maybe they were underage?
Re:The only time I was flagged at "self-checkout". (Score:5, Funny)
"OH Brother" ... (Score:5, Funny)
SORRY, YOU ARE NOT CLEARED FOR THAT (Score:5, Funny)
And stop thinking about goats when you play with yourself.
Your Attention (Score:5, Funny)
DoublePlusYeeHaw!
Re:Something wrong with $5.15 an hour? (Score:4, Funny)
And if they refuse to comply, we nuke them!
There, solved it for you.
Re:Peaches? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:We're at 1983 (Score:3, Funny)
They'll sniff around it, bark at it pointlessly and then pee on the tires before losing interest and walking off?
Re:Durrrrrr (Score:1, Funny)
I've got it! (Score:1, Funny)
Re:Peaches? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Something wrong with $5.15 an hour? (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Big "OH Brother" (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Just walk away (Score:5, Funny)
Let me guess: the small, poor country you were in was the United States, and the store you went to was the local Radio Shack.
Re:It may be too late... (Score:3, Funny)
Collecting "protection money" from you and me CHECK!
That sounds suspicously like the US government to me.
Re:Peaches? (Score:4, Funny)
C'mon. I'd like to see you take all of this stuff up to the self-checkout and get a deep rooted anal search for it.
What a day to shop.
Re:Peaches? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Peaches? (Score:5, Funny)
That's cherries.
Re:Peaches? (Score:5, Funny)
Comment removed (Score:3, Funny)
Re:Something wrong with $5.15 an hour? (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Just walk away (Score:3, Funny)
Your IP address has been noted. Your ISP will be contacted. Your credit card number will be acquired. Next time you go to buy peaches; bam! Cavity search!