DYSTOPIA NATION – TECHNO TYRANTS

BALLADEER’S BLOG

Here at Independent Voter site Balladeer’s Blog, I can’t help but reflect on how less than three full years ago when this blog post used America’s increasingly totalitarian Big Tech fascists as examples for dystopian literature, it seemed like the dire possibilities explored might come within a decade or just under.

Unfortunately, in less than those three years that I mentioned we’ve seen privileged white male one-percenters like Jack Dorsey and Mark Zuckerberg EXCEED many of the abuses I wrote about in what was then (2018) fiction.

If you enjoy the article below, HERE is a link to a 2018 article about AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL pointing out how Google and Facebook threaten human rights. And HERE is a link to another such article. The lesson being “Don’t try to say that Big Tech won’t abuse their money and power after all that we’ve seen.”

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THE TECHNO-TYRANTS OF SILICON VALLEY (2018) – The modern-day versions of the disgusting old Robber Barons might well be the corporate fascists aka techno-fascists in assorted tech industries, not just regarding Silicon Valley but also privacy-violating rich pigs at Facebook and elsewhere.

In fact, you could make the case that people like Mark “Skippy” Zuckerberg and his fellow corporate fascists are even worse since I don’t recall bloated rich pigs like E.H. Harriman or Cornelius Vanderbilt trying to police other people’s every thought, word and deed. The invasive and ever-expanding tentacular reach of techno-fascists or in this fictional case Techno-Tyrants would make these villains a very credible threat to political freedom and freedom of expression.

In recent years outfits like Twitter, Facebook and others even made public noises about banning customers based on their conduct UNRELATED TO THOSE UTILITIES! Can you imagine the old, old Ma Bell monopoly cutting off people’s phone service because their operators caught those users discussing voting for political candidates disapproved of by Ma Bell’s upper echelons or expressing opinions frowned upon by Ma Bell?

Even worse, places like Google and others have made it firing offenses to be caught holding opinions at odds with the one percenters and bloated rich pigs who run those tech-related outfits.

For the fictional Techno-Tyrants of this blog post it’s a quick jump to depicting such abusive totalitarians working in tandem with an oppressive government. They could leave citizens unable to access the internet or their various accounts or medical records until they recant any statements or opinions frowned upon by the Techno-Tyrants of Silicon Valley.

With Silicon Valley’s California location and given California’s periodic noises about seceding from the U.S. the fictional dystopian future pondered in this blog post could feature the Golden State already its own separate nation. The country of California could be a dictatorship led by a scientifically-preserved fossil like Jerry Brown, kept alive only through blood transfusions or organ and tissue transplants or other treatments that sacrifice the young. (NOTE FROM BALLADEER – Ironically, in the past three years California’s Democrat Governor Gavin Newsome has become the kind of real-world tyrant that this 2018 fictional/ speculation blog post was describing. No need to keep Jerry Brown alive!)    

Depending on the type of story being written California might be a hostile nation using the “advanced” science of its Techno-Tyrants to prey on other countries, including the former U.S. Hacking and other such actions might be its major source of revenue, making it a virtual Pirate State or Criminal State if you think Pirate State sounds too romantic.

California’s growing tendency to be populated by just the very rich and the very poor could also be embellished in this fictional dystopian setting. The Techno-Tyrants of Silicon Valley might be depicted living spoiled lives behind the ever-higher walls of their estates, ignoring the suffering poor. The parallels with old forms of feudalism would slide right into any story.

  (This was originally posted here at Balladeer’s Blog in 2018 and it barely looks like fiction now, more like “ripped from today’s headlines” material.)

For more looks at “future history” click HERE

© Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this blog’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to Edward Wozniak and Balladeer’s Blog with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.