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naraburns  nihil supernum  1yr ago (text post)   32440 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of February 13, 2023

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An update to a post I made after Christmas lamenting the state of children's books, and all their on the nose, "current year" agenda pushing nonsense. Specifically an update in reply to this comment.

This is why we only have classic little golden books and some innocuous stuff from the 80s and 90s on our bookshelf. Also Roald Dahl, he's great. As others have said, there's no reason to buy modern propaganda children's books. Not only are they proselytizing, but they're mostly objectively ugly.

Roald Dahl goes PC in a world where no one is 'fat' and the Oompa-Loompas are gender neutral

archive link

The publisher, Puffin, has made hundreds of changes to the original text, removing many of Dahl’s colourful descriptions and making his characters less grotesque.

The review of Dahl’s language was undertaken to ensure that the books “can continue to be enjoyed by all today”, Puffin said.

You can read the litany of changes for yourself. I guess I missed the boat on stocking up on Roald Dahl children's books. As is feeling increasingly typical these days, there can be no escape from current year. Fuck me I guess.

Welcome to early Ingsoc. As more content goes digital, there won't even be any (legal) way to possess content that is deemed oldthinking and thoughtcriminal. The books would be edited right in your electronic device, and they would always have been like that.

Are you saying you think it will be made illegal to have physical books?

Or maybe I'm not being pessimistic enough and UK counter-terrorism will just make a huge list of books, TV shows, and movies that get you on a terrorism watchlist, such as "Yes Minister", John Locke, Carlyle, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.

https://archive.is/5RQ0d

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/1134986/Independent_Review_of_Prevent.pdf

Or maybe I'm not being pessimistic enough and UK counter-terrorism will just make a huge list of books, TV shows, and movies that get you on a terrorism watchlist, such as "Yes Minister", John Locke, Carlyle, C.S. Lewis and Tolkien.

This ship sailed long ago, check Terrorism Act 2000

https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2000/11/section/58

58 Collection of information.

(1)A person commits an offence if

(a)he collects or makes a record of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism

(b)he possesses a document or record containing information of that kind

(c)the person views, or otherwise accesses, by means of the internet a document or record containing information of that kind.

"information likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism" sounds so very very scary.

What exactly it means in practice?

In practice it means books you can easily and fully legally buy from Amazon.uk

If the cops feel like including ...check... Great British Railway Journeys among this super dangerous knowledge, it would be fully legal according to this act.

"Why are you watching documents about trains? Do you plan to cause derailment?"

(more examples here)

https://www.cps.gov.uk/crime-info/terrorism/counter-terrorism-division-crown-prosecution-service-cps-successful-prosecutions-2016

Subsequent forensic analysis of the mobile device revealed four electronic documents, all of which contravened s58 of the Terrorism Act 2000.

The Anarchy Cookbook Version 2000,

The Improvised Munitions handbook Vol 1 1981

Mujahideen-Poisons Handbook

The Explosives Course.

.....

In a folder on the computer, analysts discovered PDF files containing five issues of Rumiyah, the Daesh propaganda magazine. Each of those contained an article in a section known as “Just Terror Tactics” that contravenes Section 58 Terrorism Act 2000 in that they contain instructional information likely to assist a person in the preparation of acts of terrorism. There was clear evidence of attribution to Zakaria Yanaouri. Those exact same files were duplicated on the Samsung Galaxy mobile phone and indications were that Zakaria Yanaouri had transferred the files from the computer to the phone.

.....

The police uncovered a wealth of data from five devices used by Harry Vaughan including a list of 129 internet accounts, usernames and passwords on a memory stick and a large volume of material linked to Siege, ISIS, Satanism, Neo-Nazism and antisemitism totalling approximately 4200 images and 302 files including videos.

.....

There were numerous digital copies of books on firearms, explosives and military tactics. These included manuals on how to construct homemade guns and ammunition. There were also several digital copies of books which tended to reveal extreme right-wing views and objectives.

No, they would just not print physical books anymore for mass market. At least not for the Western mass market. If you want to print it out by yourself, on your private printer - it probably would be possible, but not from copyrighted source directly (this function will be disabled in most consumer market devices, see how HD video signal is treated). You could probably hack around it, if you are technically proficient (most DRM is removable, and there are flourishing pirate markets for non-DRMed content) but most of the population would be unable to do it.

Can you elaborate on the HD signal?

What I mean is this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High-bandwidth_Digital_Content_Protection

Probably the HDCP requirement for 4K UHD video over HDMI/DisplayPort. DRM (albeit fully compromised) has been baked directly into the wire protocol. If you try to run without (on the cables, monitors, source, any other pieces of equipment passing the signal), you get downgraded to 1080p HD.

Oh okay, I consider 4K to be a meme and never looked into any tech adjacent to it, which explains why I haven't heard of this. Still bad for the future, I guess, but not immediately concerning.

Any computer monitor running a resolution higher than 1920x1080 over HDMI is also affected. For reference every current gen iPad on the market pushes higher resolution than that.

Most likely route is child protective services investigation for giving children dangerous and problematic books after your kid takes one to a show and tell. Like what would happen if they brought porn or Mein Kampf today.

If it sounds absurd, remember how CPS taking people's children for using the "wrong pronouns" was absurd last year, and now it's law.

Are you saying that's less likely than things that are already happening? Do you think all the rhetoric about "schools saving children from christo-fascist cults" is just talk? Parents having an old paper copy of Dr Seuss books is already passed around as a "red flag dog whistle" on the teaching and library subreddits

Parents having an old paper copy of Dr Seuss books is already passed around as a "red flag dog whistle" on the teaching and library subreddits

Do you have a link for us to gawk at? That sounds crazy even for Reddit...

I'll try to find it again. Was stalking the accounts of users supporting the Roald Dahl censorship (well, attacking anyone who opposed it as hateful bigots with no empathy, anyway), and ended up closing the whole window.

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