{"id":14284,"date":"2015-11-11T07:54:11","date_gmt":"2015-11-11T12:54:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=14284"},"modified":"2015-11-11T07:54:11","modified_gmt":"2015-11-11T12:54:11","slug":"how-technology-kills-democracy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=14284","title":{"rendered":"How Technology Kills Democracy"},"content":{"rendered":"<header>\n<h3 class=\"entry-title\"><a href=\"https:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/2015\/11\/09\/how-technology-kills-democracy\/\" target=\"_blank\">How Technology Kills Democracy<\/a><\/h3>\n<p class=\"entry-meta\">In shutting down whistleblowing and investigative journalism on national security issues, the U.S. government can use its\u00a0technology to determine who is speaking to whom and then use that metadata as evidence of leaks, a chilling new reality is that endangers democracy, writes Norman Solomon.<\/p>\n<\/header>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<hr \/>\n<p>Of all the excuses ladled out for the Obama administration\u2019s shredding of the Fourth Amendment while assaulting press freedom and prosecuting \u201cnational security\u201d whistleblowers, none is more pernicious than the claim that technology is responsible.<\/p>\n<p>At first glance, the explanation might seem to make sense. After all, the capacities of digital tech have become truly awesome. It\u2019s easy to finger \u201ctechnology\u201d as the driver of government policies, as if the president at the wheel has little choice but to follow the technological routes that have opened up for Big Brother.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"image-anchor\" href=\"http:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/obama-bush.jpg?4574c0\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-9660\" src=\"http:\/\/consortiumnews.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/08\/obama-bush-300x229.jpg?4574c0\" alt=\"Barack Obama, then President-elect, and President George W. Bush at the White House during the 2008 transition.\" width=\"300\" height=\"229\" data-lazy-loaded=\"true\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Now comes\u00a0<em>New York Times<\/em>\u00a0reporter Charlie Savage, telling listeners and viewers of a\u00a0<em>Democracy Now<\/em>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.democracynow.org\/2015\/11\/4\/power_wars_how_obama_continued_bushs\"><u>interview<\/u><\/a>\u00a0that the surveillance state is largely a matter of technology: \u201cIt\u2019s just the way it is in the 21st century.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>That\u2019s a great way to depoliticize a crucial subject \u2014 downplaying the major dynamics of the political economy, anti-democratic power and top-down choices \u2014 letting leaders off the hook, as if sophistication calls for understanding that government is to be regulated by high-tech forces rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n<p>In effect, the message is that \u2014 if you don\u2019t like mass surveillance and draconian measures to intimidate whistleblowers as well as journalists \u2014 your beef is really with technology, and good luck with pushing back against\u00a0<em>that<\/em>. Get it? The fault, dear citizen, is not in our political stars but in digital tech.<\/p>\n<p>&#8230;click on the above link to read the rest of the article&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How Technology Kills Democracy In shutting down whistleblowing and investigative journalism on national security issues, the U.S. government can use its\u00a0technology to determine who is speaking to whom and then use that metadata as evidence of leaks, a chilling new reality is that endangers democracy, writes Norman Solomon. Of all the excuses ladled out for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,6],"tags":[6963,204,3951,462,584,765,786,838],"class_list":["post-14284","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-geopolitics","category-liberty","tag-consortium-news","tag-democracy","tag-fourth-amendment","tag-journalism","tag-obama","tag-surveillance","tag-technology","tag-us-constitution"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14284","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=14284"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14284\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":14285,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/14284\/revisions\/14285"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=14284"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=14284"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=14284"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}