Canada

cross-posted from: https://exploding-heads.com/post/80515

The political establishment, the mainstream media, and Big Tech have combined efforts to mete out punishments for wrongthink. Systematic deplatforming has become an accepted part of our new media landscape. When banishing political lepers from social media isn’t enough, payment processors, such as PayPal and GoFundMe, have cut off dissenters and activists.

Anyone paying attention to these developments should be alarmed. Using the banking system to attack the basic essentials of economic life sets a disturbing precedent for the extrajudicial persecution of dissent. It is one thing to make it difficult for supporters of a person or group to receive donated funds. It is quite another to freeze someone out of the financial system entirely, such that the necessities of life become unavailable to those guilty of nothing more than opposing government policies.

The introduction of central-bank digital currencies, currently being pursued by the United States, Britain, and other governments worldwide, will make such measures even more seamless to implement. It appears that the economic lives of individuals are set to be funneled into ever narrower and ever more surveilled digital alleyways—with no way out.