+bonifartius 𒂼𒄄
tinfoil power
context: we have federal votes next weekend here in germany.
just read twitter (yes, i should know better ;) with someone joking about that if you lick the envelopes for your postal vote the government has your DNA.
with all the shit governments pull all the fucking time.. $agency might just collect the strips for later use, doesn't need much storage. got a district with much lefties? righties? anyone you dislike?
i think voting by mail should be the rare exemption, not standard procedure. this should be a no-brainer, never trust anyone _too much_ if it comes to votes. it's a valuable tool for people who are not able to physically go to the vote.
i really sometimes wish that the people who still make jokes about mass surveillance get exactly the world they joke about :|
tinfoil power
@bonifartius Ehhh... do you seriously believe that they'll gather DNA from licking envelopes? :P
tinfoil power
@bonifartius You seriously believe agencies are going to do this? :P
tinfoil power
@trinsec why not? it's an easy opportunity, and spooks are known for all kinds of weird operations 💁
i think trusting anyone who has power is misguided. i know that the idea of democracies is that the electorate holds the power. in reality, it seems to be quite different though.
i don't think that there is widespread DNA collection, but it's a perfect opprtunity if you want to.
tinfoil power
@bonifartius I highly doubt that. They have no guarantee who's licking. I could let my cat lick. Or use a sponge. Or let someone else lick. There's no sense in collecting DNA just for the sake of collecting DNA without linking it to anyone.
That's just fearmongering IMO. :P
tinfoil power
@trinsec there also was no sense in MKULTRA, gladio, communist hunt in the west, etc. :)
tinfoil power
@trinsec you can use the same argument for the widespread collection of internet traffic data, there also is no sense in that. it's done regardless, because you "might use that later".
as i've said, it's probably not the case that they collect DNA samples, but you can't exclude the possibility and have to be aware of it. return envelopes could have micro dots printed on them as identification, and so on.
never trust more than you have to, after all the state is not interested in your personal wellbeing but in the wellbeing of the _whole_ state-construct.
e.g. that we have universal insurance etc. here can be viewed as just a measure to keep everything going smoothly.
i know that one has to be careful to not go "full retart" wrt these theories, but IMO it can't hurt to explore the possibilities as an exercise.
tinfoil power
@trinsec no, just pointing out that it might actually be done by agencies and that making jokes about it to tease conspiracy theorists is.. misguided? :)