Author: Joop Beris
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Opposing Voices Matter
On Wednesday, September 10th, political activist and Trump devotee Charlie Kirk was shot dead during one of his campus appearances. A man of the right, Kirk styled himself as an evangelist for conservatism, Christianity, the Second Amendment, and whatever the word “anti-woke” happens to mean on any given day. The assassin has not yet explained…
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How Europe is Betraying Its Own Values
A curious spectre is haunting Europe, though it is not socialism this time; it is the creeping, bureaucratic death of liberty. Across the continent, our political class is flirting with a proposal so flagrantly absurd and authoritarian that one almost wonders if they have read a history book: the mandatory scanning of every private message,…
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An end to online privacy
There’s something strange going on in Europe. While we have some of the strongest privacy laws in the world, while we fine companies for violating user rights all while considering the most draconian surveillance laws imaginable. Again, the EU is considering a mass surveillance law that, if implemented, will basically put an end to online…
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Abolish privacy
Sometimes you have one of those “What the hell did I just read?” moments. One of those moments for me was earlier this week when someone shared the manifesto “Abolish privacy” with me. People who read my blog, know that I have pretty strong opinions on privacy and I have addressed the topic here many…
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We use AI wrong
Generative AI has taken the world by storm. Every company scrambles to add AI to their products, whether it is functional or not. Don’t get me wrong, sometimes AI is a helpful addition but in general, I think we use AI wrong.
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One-dimensional man
I recently came across an article which discusses the philosophy of Herbert Marcuse, a German philosopher of the Frankfurt school. Marcuse is surprisingly still very relevant today. In his book The One-Dimensional Man, he argues that modern, industrialized, democratic nations are actually totalitarian in nature. What struck me was the link I saw to the…