Posted on 03/24/2009 10:53:22 AM PDT by Tucson_AZ
It starts off simply enough...you get an email from a friend and it says something like: "OMG You have to see this video about [fill in the blank]. Because you're very interested in [fill in the blank] as a topic, you click over to the link to see what's a highly charged video about [fill in the blank] and the video urges you to 'tell all your friends about this video and send them the link...'.
If you're not computer/military/PowersThatBe savvy, you're likely to pass on the link without giving it a second thought. But you should give it some serious thought whenever you follow links because when you follow links you may be self-profiling yourself to the government.
Amazing? Well, no, pretty simple programming exercise, really. And, if you had the 'summer of hell/2009' coming up due to all kinds of social stresses and the breakdown of the social contract, right about now if you were trying to defend the existing social paradigm, you'd be doing the same thing, too.
It's called 'memeering' and according to our predictive linguistics friends at www.halfpasthuman.com the program is already underway. Toward what end? Well, what's a low-cost way to find out who is what kind of potential threat to your paradigm? I'll show you how it works, step-by-step so you 'get it'.
It begins with a government setting up a web site with an emotionally charged video about something like 'black powder' or 'inter-racial relations'.
Then a series of postings is put out on the net in places where such a video would likely get a lot of attention. Say, in a 'black powder' kind of video they will post something emotionally compelling to a bunch of gun web sites and discussion groups.
Next, when someone goes to the web site involved, it's a simple matter for the site to log your internet protocol address. Skeptical? go to
www.whatismyip.com and your 'net address comes up.
Congratulations! You have just gotten yourself into a government database of people who have an 'interest in black powder'. Since you probably don't spend as much 'head space' as we do, thinking about such computer applications, what this looks like in database set theory can be visualized this way:
So far, so good. Now, let's further suppose that want to narrow down the kind of people that would also be interested in anti-establishment direct action. Next step? Another video (or web site) only this time, we are going to use a topic like, oh, say "Startling New WTO video!" Such that folks going to this second vid site will likely include some people who also have an interest in black powder, like so:
Now, it becomes a simple matter to say "Hey! See that IP Address 12.191.191.5? That shows up in BOTH groups. This intersection between sets in database operations is the vesica pisces.
But now, let's take it one step further, because so far, it's still far too many people to round up and throw in special 'camps' should the country get into a period of social unrest; say over a 'summer of hell/2009' period. So we will put up another site, only this time it might be something like "List of upcoming "Tea Party" events. Like so:
So, you see, it's all very simple, once you get the basis concept down: How will you be self-selecting whether you get judged a 'threat' or not is a simple matter of keeping track of which links you followed to get where.
More important? There's also a simple way to build 'social networks' this way because not only is your IP address logged, but so is the time of your visit. So as this kind of data snooping continues - as long as lots of folks don't understand it, when you forward one of these sites, you are then in effect telling whatever government "Hey, I am linked to Joe your bother-in-law over here"...and pretty quick not only do they know who has an interest in guns, WTO demonstrations, and upcoming Tea Party events, but they also know that when your IP address shows up, in say half a dozen such exercises, that "Joe your brother-in-law" shows up within a day or two, and he's already on their 'threats to society' list because he actually carried a sign and was ID'ed at some other kind of event...maybe an environmentalist affair of some kind. And they get all Joe your brother-in-laws connections, too, until pretty quick you get a map in a social networking application that might look like this:
So here's my bottom line: When you do any kind of social networking, be extremely careful with whom you associate. Or, in the case of Cliff and me, simply don't follow unknown links. Nothing wrong with YouTube and Google video, but even there, the IP snooping that goes on at the phone company level is pretty awesome,; which is what the privacy people get all worked up about.
Why am I bringing this up today? Because the web bot project has been running across more of these kinds of memeering operations lately which means one of these days, one or more of them will show up in your email. And, as they do, no matter how tempting it may seem to follow this emotionally highly-charged link just remember that in the process you are self-sorting yourself into some kind of a government profile as part of 'total information awareness' programs designed to enable preemptions, national security rating, and in a worst of all cases scenario, your round-up priority if you've identified yourself as a 'risk' to the existing paradigm.
Although it may be too late to do anything about it, if you've already gotten such emails and followed them. But WTF, its easier to explain it now than waiting till the October-November period when there is a small, but non-zero, chance some rounding up will be done.
Oh...one more thing: If you think you can 'beat the system' by using an open access proxy server somewhere? Are you kidding? Those would be almost the very first people to round up because they're smart enough to 'get it' and therefore are the most threatening there are to the existing paradigm, are you kidding?
Yes, this is exactly what the electronic freedom fighters are all about, but that battle's been over for a long time. Sorry. You lost. Oh sure, something like the Google Street View controversy seems like the right fight, but are you kidding? Hell no, it's a minor distraction to keep the public off the real deal memeering.
All plausibly deniable, too. How so? There are something like 27 levels of security classifications above even the President of these United States. So you just know how far down the food chain Congress and watchdog agencies are. But then you knew that, too, or at least you should have. Or, maybe you don't. And maybe there really are no PowersThatBe, no shadow government, above the elected, and acting as self-appointed caretakers for the existing way things are because it sorta works. Of course.
Then again, you might inspect those links to web sites that aren't on the beaten path, and even then, you gotta wonder what the phone companies are really up to in their central office frame rooms, and why that's so important to 'national security'. Except now you know.
Seems like a bunch of us Tucsonans around these days.
Aw nuts.
That’ll teach me to read through all the comments before I post!
Somebody forgot the “tin foil hat alert”.
You’re liable to also even with a cable modem, provided you actually shut down the modem between sessions.
However, your Internet Service Provider needs to know who you are when you log in - to verify that you are a valid bill-paying customer. To accomplish this, they give you a sign-in and a password (or at the very least, they look at the unique MAC address on your cable modem to verify that it is you). Either way, once you connect to your service provider, THEY know who you are, even if the government does not.
Once you successfully connect to your service provider, and sign in, THEN they assign you an IP address, which you then use for surfing the Web. Even if you hang up, log back in the next day, and get a different IP address (assuming you have dial-up), your Internet Service Provider will still have a record of which IP address they assigned to you the previous day (and probably every day before that).
Hence, all anyone with authority has to do is go to your Internet Service Provider and ask a question like: "on 10/14/08, at 11:23pm, which one of your customers was assigned IP address 43.67.21.56??". So I don't think that hanging up and redialing, or power-cycling your cable modem, will do much good if they are sufficiently determined to identify you.
Hubby works with a guy who just found out this election that his wife of 7 years is a flaming lib. He swears he had no idea and is completely shocked at her views. I knew in the first 10 minutes of conversation with her the first time I met her. That was over 3 years ago. How can you NOT have any idea the political leanings of the person you’ve been living with for 7 years? And they don’t even have kids, so it’s not like they were distracted other people in the house.
a plain crown vic across the street? oh dear, across the street is a police station and a mdot building.
how will i know which one’s out to get me?
That was pretty cool, tho’ at least one part was wrong. Since I have no idea what my IP address is, don’t know if it was right. ISP was, so probably...
must be a big lawn..
That's not necessarily true. I know several military folks that are ticked that they have sacrificed a lifetime of deployments and family separation to earn those benefits only to be told, “that's nice, get in the back of the line with everybody else, the doctor will be with you in a couple of hours.” They feel cheated and betrayed.
A. already.
You must be confused, we never make mistakes.
It all comes down to how much agreement on politics is believed necessary to run a marriage. For some, that’s very important. Others don’t value political compatibility as much.
My wife and I have been married almost 32 years. Our children are outstanding people, even my liberal daughter.
My wife doesn’t vote. She just doesn’t care that much. She thinks the rich will do as they please, that there is nothing we can do, and that we’re a bunch of dopes for caring so much about something we can’t control. She’s from the “trust in God and live your life” school.
So speak for yourself. I wasn't claiming anything globally, but telling of one military man I met. It is disturbing to meet a single military man who is an Obamite.
Click the link, type in your FR Name (or someone else s) and presto... point is everyone has something logged somewhere... especially insurgent websites like FR ;-)
http://www.google.com/swr?q=site:freerepublic.com&hl=en&lr=&safe=off&as_qdr=all&swrnum=2050000
Well... Netscape is kinda like Firefox.
Only different. Sorta...
Oh, I’m not saying you have to have political compatibility for a successful marriage. I’ve seen numerous cases of “opposites attract,” and it works great for them. And these two seem to be getting along just fine. I’m just having a hard time believing he didn’t have any clue that she was a liberal—for 7 years. That’s the part that gets me. He says he didn’t know. Seven years, and it never came up in conversation??
hectares and hectares...
:)
no more calls please, we have a winner...
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.