Imagine your daily behavior, from crossing the street to walking your dog, being constantly tracked and scored. What if a single late payment could derail your financial stability for years? Julee shares a personal story of how one missed deadline drastically impacted her credit score, a sobering reminder of the control such systems can exert. Join us as we explore China's pervasive social credit system and ponder the possibility of similar systems emerging in other countries, comparing it to the FICO credit score that has shaped American financial lives since 1989.
As we dive deeper, the conversation shifts to the broader implications of technological surveillance. From the extensive use of facial recognition to the integration of artificial intelligence in our daily routines, we discuss the erosion of privacy and the potential manipulation of individuals through socioeconomic categorization. Could a social credit system create hierarchical structures reminiscent of caste systems? We reflect on the ethical and practical measures citizens might take to safeguard their privacy and autonomy in a world increasingly driven by digital connections.
Finally, we tackle the complex issue of free speech on social media platforms and the responsibilities of regulating content. How do platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook balance the need for free expression with the necessity of curbing hate speech? We explore the potential implications of societal controls similar to those in China and the alarming trend of public shaming and surveillance, drawing parallels to dystopian themes in "The Handmaid's Tale." Stay informed, stay questioning, and join us as we navigate these critical discussions in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
Imagine your daily behavior, from crossing the street to walking your dog, being constantly tracked and scored. What if a single late payment could derail your financial stability for years? Julee shares a personal story of how one missed deadline drastically impacted her credit score, a sobering reminder of the control such systems can exert. Join us as we explore China's pervasive social credit system and ponder the possibility of similar systems emerging in other countries, comparing it to the FICO credit score that has shaped American financial lives since 1989.
As we dive deeper, the conversation shifts to the broader implications of technological surveillance. From the extensive use of facial recognition to the integration of artificial intelligence in our daily routines, we discuss the erosion of privacy and the potential manipulation of individuals through socioeconomic categorization. Could a social credit system create hierarchical structures reminiscent of caste systems? We reflect on the ethical and practical measures citizens might take to safeguard their privacy and autonomy in a world increasingly driven by digital connections.
Finally, we tackle the complex issue of free speech on social media platforms and the responsibilities of regulating content. How do platforms like YouTube, Twitter, and Facebook balance the need for free expression with the necessity of curbing hate speech? We explore the potential implications of societal controls similar to those in China and the alarming trend of public shaming and surveillance, drawing parallels to dystopian themes in "The Handmaid's Tale." Stay informed, stay questioning, and join us as we navigate these critical discussions in an ever-evolving digital landscape.
Hey everybody. This is Michelle and this is Julie. Welcome to a blonde, a brunette and a mic podcast. What is our podcast all about you?
Speaker 2:ask Well, we're 250 something.
Speaker 1:Women with life experience, and oh bloody to say, which is exactly what we're gonna do right now. Hey Jules, how's it going? It's good, yeah, it's good. Good, good, good.
Speaker 2:Yeah, we like good Good. Hey, I'm just going to dive right in because we've been talking about this a little bit just in advance of recording. And I still just find it so unthinkable that, because of where we live in the United States, you know, we have so much more freedom than in other countries. But the thought of having somebody keeping track of, like, how I cross the street or if I walk my dog without a leash or whatever, seems really severe to me. And that's what happens in countries like China that have a social credit score.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I know we brought that up when we were talking about the iPhone situation. A couple credit score. Yeah, I know I brought that up when we were talking about the iPhone situation a couple episodes ago and we decided we needed to talk more on that topic. So here, we are.
Speaker 2:Well, michelle had mentioned about the social credit score in China and I was mentioning this is in that episode we had a couple times ago, a couple episodes ago, but I was mentioning how I saw that show, black Mirror, and one of the episodes in that show was kind of about the same thing, where it was a little bit different. Like you had your phone, people could rate you based on their interactions with you and kind of like you do with an Uber driver or Airbnb, which of course you know I'm familiar with. So if they gave you a like, if you weren't polite or you disregarded somebody or you know, didn't hold the door open for somebody, things like that, they would lower your point, they would give you like low points and then that would affect your ability to even get an apartment or get things like that. In this show and I'm thinking I remember watching that- going.
Speaker 3:How creepy is that yeah.
Speaker 2:But it's really happening in other countries. Yes, it is. Specifically, we were going to talk today about China, because that seems to be where it's come along, but, based on some of the information that you've pulled together, I don't think we're as far behind as we think. Yeah, so I wanted you to share a little bit of your thought process on kind of where this came from originally.
Speaker 1:Well, and there's, to your point, other countries. It's really kind of been a process of unveiling in China, but you know they're starting to see the things being laid out in countries like Canada, the UK, scotland, australia, different things, and here really not specifically for a social credit score, but when you think about, you know, going to a completely digital cashless society and all the AI technology we have the, all the cameras that are going in everywhere, facial recognition things that we have to do now, and I just think those are all things laying groundwork for something like the social credit score. And when you think about where it stems from, julie and I were talking about this just a little bit ago, before we started recording, but we were talking about the FICO credit score.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:And you know how that was put into place. In 1989 is when that came to fruition. Prior to that, you know people just they work jobs, they had money, they would buy homes and you, you know how it was in the first half of the century here.
Speaker 1:And really like I said, till 1989. Hence, in comes the FICO score, which really, I think had an effect on the way things then started moving forward through the next generation with regard to the American dream and how people were impacted by the rating that they were giving given and that we still are, based on how we handle ourselves financially. Don't get me wrong. It's, it's an important thing.
Speaker 2:It's a financial score.
Speaker 2:So I guess I I've always in our conversation we were talking about this and I look at it like the FICO score is a culmination of your three different major credit bureaus and there are so many things that affect each one of those credit scores that is so difficult to get adjusted or addressed or anything.
Speaker 2:And being in the industry where people buy houses, obviously this is something that comes up quite a bit, because you can literally be late one day Well, 30 days plus one day, I guess on a credit card payment and it will screw you up for three years. It'll show as a late payment and it can affect your ability to get a loan for a house even. Or, if you're able to get a loan for a house, then your interest you're able to get a loan for a house then your interest rate's going to end up being higher because your credit scores plummeted because of that one error that was made and I had that situation come up a few years back where it was something to do with an auto payment through Chase and they had canceled an auto payment that was on a credit card.
Speaker 2:I don't remember what the circumstances were, but it was something. I didn't cancel it, it was overridden or something.
Speaker 2:Anyway the payment never went through and so I had no idea. I thought the payment had gone through. So when I go to check, boom, there's no payment and it affected my credit score. Like my credit score probably dropped 40 points, something like that, and this was back quite a ways ago, but it took a long time to be able to have that not be a topic of conversation. Anytime, I was planning to do something that involved a large loan like a house or something like that.
Speaker 2:It came up and it did affect the ability that I had to get the best interest rate. And it was one thing, michelle, you know it's like I've always paid my bills. Everything's always on time, all that kind of stuff. So this coming up was like well.
Speaker 1:And I guess that's the thing it's like. Is that really telling when you really step outside of what you just said? Is that really telling of your financial response? You know how you handle yourself fiscally by that one payment not being on there, which has an explanation, and I guess that's the difference. Prior FICO, back in the day, you would just go and you would explain to I don't know the bank or whatever this happened, here's the situation, et cetera, whatever.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and they could have changed hopefully or yeah there was so much more on you know being a person of your word.
Speaker 2:Well, and that's what this whole thing in china is has originally, uh, been derived from. Is this social credit score was a way to gauge trustworthiness, and it's kind of extended off into things that are not just having to do with trust, you know, like integrity, honesty, um, sincerity. How do you gauge some of these things? Morality, these are all kind of more subjective things, depending upon who you're talking to and what their opinion is on those sorts of things, you know.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And all of that, obviously rolled up into one ball, would be trustworthiness. But I don't think. If you're looking at it from that example that I gave you, I don't see how that one situation did the view of me being trustworthy. It was just a mistake that was made in the bank. It was like pulling teeth to get that fixed.
Speaker 1:And I guess too, you have to ask yourself really like who are these?
Speaker 2:bureaus Right? Well, they have control over what you're able to and not able to do unless you're using cash and we are not a cashless society yet, and I'm not really an advocate for that myself. I think it's kind of dangerous to be. It's very convenient, don't get me wrong, but it's like there's places already out there that are cashless and it's like you have to use your card for everything. Even like the Seahawks stadium you know, or the Mariners stadium or something you can't use cash for anything there.
Speaker 2:So I don't know I have a hard time with that. It's not like I use a lot of cash anyway, but I think it's necessary to have that ability to be able to pay your bills, you know, if you want to that way. But the problem with cash is that the government can't keep track of it.
Speaker 1:Well, that which is why they want a cashless society right. Yeah, that's why they, and that's that's one of the things I say, laying groundwork for this, that those are. That's one of the things that would be part of that, because if we're a cashless society, in these federally run institutions, the banks, the government has their hand in it.
Speaker 2:We do these things are to are to measure your risk, as a like to lend money to you or what have you, and it's like the banks are very well protected, very well protected. We've seen that through, like the crash in 2000. I mean, every bank was protected and people were screwed. And then you get into, you know COVID and all of these landlords that were having, you know people renting their places that couldn't pay their rent or weren't paying their rent were the ones that were screwed. The banks weren't screwed. So it's like the common person is the one that's really getting the nuts and bolts of that.
Speaker 2:But in the US it's really been related to credit for the most part, right. So we're seeing like and we're using China as an example because it seems to be the furthest along, but it's extended now into all of these other things that have to do with how you're viewed in that society, how you're able to move throughout that society in ways in regard to financial situations or educational situations, your job. All of those things are directly related to this credit score that you have, and it's not even a perfect system. I mean, I don't know what a perfect system would look like in that regard, but my reading and my understanding has been that by it starting out originally as a communist government thing right.
Speaker 2:Like an overarching thing and has gone into each province and state or county, I guess you could say, and they're able to make their own determinations on how they want to use the social credit score and they're different from place to place. I think there's probably things that are the same, that have to do with, you know, finances and things like that, but punitive results or the benefits and things maybe are not even the same from place to place, kind of like, you know, in the United States we have federal government laws and then we have state government laws.
Speaker 2:It's similar to that, which I was kind of surprised because I was thinking this is a communist government. How could they possibly be giving freedom to make choices and decisions to each one of these?
Speaker 1:entities, but they're all part of the communist government, so maybe that's why they're having to yeah part of the communist government, so maybe that's why Having to yeah, I don't know. I have a news thing from TikTok that I found, oh yeah. That kind of explains the social credit score what's going on over in China.
Speaker 2:Okay, can you play it?
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's just take a listen here official intelligence to track just about everything.
Speaker 3:This note In some of China's largest cities, a high-tech effort is underway to bust low-level offenders jaywalkers Cameras record them going through intersections, zero in on their face and then publicly shame them on nearby video screens. It's all part of the Chinese government's new social credit system where people's daily behavior is monitored and rated. Where people's daily behavior is monitored and rated, I think it's a good thing. This woman said it makes people more honest. But this social credit rating goes far beyond a traditional credit score, which is based on your finances. China's version factors in everything from jaywalking to smoking on trains, to buying too many video games.
Speaker 3:If your score gets too low, you can be banned from buying plane tickets, renting a house or getting a loan. Nearly 15 million people have already been prevented from traveling. Journalist Leo Hu is one of them. He recently tried to book a flight but was told he couldn't because he was on the list of untrustworthy people. I can't buy property. My child can't go to private school, he says. You feel like you're being controlled by the list all the time. Chinese technology firms such as SenseTime are helping the government effort by developing advanced cameras that use artificial intelligence to track just about everything.
Speaker 1:There you go. Oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:Artificial intelligence it's coming To track everything.
Speaker 1:And again, another piece of the puzzle laying groundwork for these types of things, while this Trump situation has been happening in the news. It kind of you know, has silently behind the scenes taken place, but he vetoed a bill that was to be passed in regard to ESG, which is environmental, social and corporate governance laws.
Speaker 2:Okay, and this was a bipartisan bill, yes, but striking it down. Basically, his veto was to eliminate that bill and that bill was all related to this AI and some of the things that you were talking about in regard to groundwork that you're seeing kind of being laid in different countries.
Speaker 1:Yeah Right, so, yeah, so there's a lot of people trying to push it through.
Speaker 2:Well, given that it was bipartisan, I find that kind of interesting.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 2:Usually it's one over the other, but I mean the fact that it was both sides wanting to participate almost equally. Yeah, and then he vetoed it. I find that really interesting, yeah.
Speaker 1:I think that you know it's taken some time over in China to, you know, have this evolve Probably not as difficult there because it is a communist country. I think it's going to be more of a challenge here. But now, when you think about the last few years and all the things that have taken place few years being, you know, could be the last five years or even longer, but really the last five when you think about some of the things and everything being connected back to our cell phone conversation, you know the cellular phones and you think of the voice recognition, facial recognition, artificial intelligence cameras are going up everywhere here too.
Speaker 2:Well, in the research that I had done, there are over 200 million cameras that are throughout China, yeah, and so I was saying to you that that has got to be like a massive database. But I mean, obviously people are not watching all of these videos, right?
Speaker 1:I mean, you can't yeah.
Speaker 2:But with AI or facial recognition, and things like that they're able to see this person jaywalking and just send them a. Well, actually, they're not even sending them anything, they're just deducting. They're just taking money out.
Speaker 1:That's what I mean with the cash, yeah.
Speaker 2:They have access to your bank account.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I mean the government has access to my bank account because I do my taxes every year just electronically. Yeah, I do too. Everything is Two years ago. I had to do that. It was really kind of creepy when I had to set up to make payments to the IRS.
Speaker 1:I had to hold my phone. It did this whole facial recognition thing. I don't know why they need all that, but I had to do it in order to move forward with making payments to the IRS. You know, you think about the DNA bandwagon that everybody's on and sending your DNA and and and, oh the like, the 23 and B, yeah.
Speaker 1:That's why you know your blood, your DNA and then all of the technology groundwork that there is being laid and everything being connected. And you think about the pandemic you know there was talk of, you know for a while just kind of fear tactics, I think, but you know, not being able to fly without a vaccine passport, or there were things that they were talking about then and you know just different things. But, yeah, a lot of ground work being laid, especially with artificial intelligence now and your mobile phones, your TVs, everything is smart, everything is smart.
Speaker 2:So what can we do? I mean just as basic citizens, you know, to try and I mean some people might not care Like we were listening to the article or the news article that you had played and they interviewed some woman.
Speaker 2:And you know the translation was I actually kind of like it because I think it keeps everybody honest. And as I'm listening to that honestly, I'm going back to the conversations that we had around. I don't remember which episode it was, but I was talking about oh, I was talking about the Patriot Act and how, after 9-11, the Patriot Act went into place and people were really concerned about their personal information, emails, phone, all that kind of stuff being shared and I was saying to myself self, you know, at that time, and even two weeks ago or three weeks ago, I was saying, well, what's the big deal, you know, if you're not doing anything wrong?
Speaker 2:And now I'm sitting here listening to all this stuff and I'm like, oh hell, no, I don't want anybody. I mean, it's not like I have anything to hide, but I don't want everybody having access to my every move.
Speaker 1:But I think it's really creepy. It's a manipulation type of system that doesn't really make somebody honest. No, I think people can manipulate the system. You're held hostage, yeah.
Speaker 2:It holds you hostage, I think when it starts, when it starts putting you in like these socioeconomic categories, which starts really kind of starting to look like a caste system or a hierarchy system, Because along with the socioeconomic piece of it comes all of this other stuff.
Speaker 1:You know where you were born, how you were raised, what school you went to, what kind of education you received and if you're a part of this social system, like in China, like that guy that was on that article was saying yeah, his kids aren't even allowed to go to the school he wants to send them to, because that he can score, that he maybe used to be able to afford to send them to, but maybe because of the blacklisting Now I mean that's what he said he's always feels like he's being controlled by the list.
Speaker 2:So I think where that has really started on a wide range in China has to do with businesses more than people, and so if you have a negative score, social score, as a company, then that directly impacts who will work with you. It directly impacts probably what kind of loans, if any, that you can receive. It probably impacts probably what kind of loans, if any, that you can receive. It probably impacts a lot of different things, but those particular business owners are, it looks like, maybe affected personally as well.
Speaker 2:So the whole thing about schooling, so that I mean it's a lot of stuff that directly relates to someone's future and what they're able to do. So let's just say you have a 15 year old kid, 14 year old kid, that you want to go to some prestigious high school and they can't go because your credits, your social credit score, is not in the category or in the range or whatever. So when that kid ends up going to whatever school they end up being able to go to, then when they get out of school and are 18, they probably start on their own social credit score.
Speaker 1:I would think, I would imagine. So they're not under their parents anymore. I don't know the answer to that, but I would imagine yeah, at a certain age.
Speaker 2:But there comes a point in time when you're talking about the social credit score where, like in America, look at how difficult it is for kids to get assistance from their parents if their parents make too much money, right, even if their parents are not able to provide any financial support for their education, yeah, you know they're screwed. I mean, look at the student loans that we're seeing.
Speaker 2:you know with people here that they're going into so much debt for yeah all of those things would impact their social credit score in theory, but they really don't have a choice if they want to get an education and they have no other way to be able to afford it. So, yeah, there's a lot of different things that impact it. What are you kind of seeing in your crystal ball for the United States, just based on everything that we've looked at and talked about?
Speaker 1:I think that eventually we will all have I mean, chances are that. I don't think it's too farfetched that we would all have a digital identity, and I think that we are not far from something maybe not the same as what this looks like in China, but I think in some ways we already are under the same kind of scrutiny.
Speaker 2:We just don't realize it, we just don't realize it. So when you were talking before about how the groundwork's being laid, I think you're right when you and I'm not a conspiracy theorist, I don't look at things that way, you don't have to give that disclaimer.
Speaker 1:Come on now. You give disclaimers all the time. Not that I'm not a conspiracy theorist, Anyways.
Speaker 2:yeah, because I know a lot of people prefacing all of this by saying I'm really not, but yeah that that lends more credence to it really in my mind because I'm not, but at the same time kind of see some of these things happening, and I've always been really I wouldn't say oblivious, but acknowledge or just make a mental note when I see something that I think is odd, but I don't really delve into it too much. And this kind of stuff I think will affect us or hit us without us really realizing it.
Speaker 1:It's coming in different ways media if we don't abide by certain rules and regulations on what we post or tweets or different things like that there is. There's somebody, board of people somewhere that decide that it doesn't get to go out. That's just, and YouTube too, that they've been going through a lot of different, you know, for people who are labeled as a conspiracy theorist Candace Owens, and a lot of different people that have platforms that they really speak out about a lot of these types of things.
Speaker 2:And that there's the whole argument about free speech on a lot of this, which has also been an argument for some of the socials you know, like the Twitters and the TikToks and Instagram, facebook, all of them where people feel like they should be able to say or do whatever they want to because, even if it's hate speech, even if it's detrimental to another, you know, group of people or whatever they're saying, free speech, they can do it. And who's going to be monitoring that?
Speaker 1:And so how do you, how do you feel about that? Because that's where I was going with that. It's like they take it down. They don't take all of it down, but they take it down and they make them abide by certain rules and regulations, which I know there's got to be some of that in place. But like what you were just talking about and I'm not saying I'm for it or against, but Is that a disclaimer? Maybe?
Speaker 2:without saying it was.
Speaker 1:Not for it or against it, but as I was listening to you and with regard to free speech kind of going down, I was listening to you and with regard to free speech kind of going down, a rabbit hole here. But with regard to free speech and a platform like YouTube not even going to say the socials, but like YouTube why can't people report on and talk about the things that they want to talk about? They have their own following.
Speaker 2:I guess it has to do with legalities, like if it's a legal topic, I mean if you're, if you're a Ku Klux Klan member and you want to report on the big festival that you had and you know burning, I don't know what they do but you know what I mean. Let's just say it's something extreme like that and it racist and it's like hate filled and all that. I mean do they have the right to do that?
Speaker 1:Do they?
Speaker 2:I don't know. Why don't they? Well, that's my question.
Speaker 1:It's like I personally have no desire to see or hear about any of that stuff, then you wouldn't be watching Right, then you wouldn't be going to that channel and watching it. So it's the same. It's just like and I know I brought up I don't know why because she's pretty controversial about a lot of topics that she addresses. But same thing if I'm not cool with Candace Owens and a lot of the things she talks about, I'm not headed over to her channel to watch it. So why does it? I mean, do people not?
Speaker 1:have the wherewithal to make the choice, okay, so maybe a social credit score would be a good thing, based on what you just said yeah, I don't think every.
Speaker 2:I think we can't generalize and put everybody in the same bucket. Some people have the mindset that they're like gosh I wouldn't really invest any time in that and then others don't. We are getting down a rabbit hole. There are a lot of things that are on the internet and that are on like the dark web.
Speaker 2:I guess I've never been on there, but you know that are a lot of these things we're talking about, like Andrew's shown me videos that are just horrific, that you wouldn't see on like a regular YouTube video. I don't know what channel they're on, but they're really graphic and, you know, have to do with, like, the wars that are going on or whatever, and that's not anything that I would go seek out. But I also am kind of like is our society so effed up that we need to allow all that stuff too? So I'm really I struggle with that because I don't think we need to have evil people or people sharing evil content or sharing evil things with people that are going to perpetuate evil acts.
Speaker 1:There's so much of it out there, though, jules.
Speaker 2:I know.
Speaker 1:That they mask themselves as not evil.
Speaker 2:Here's the thing. What we're talking about is kind of interesting because we have, in the United States, way more freedom to be able to do a lot of these things that the government or whomever isn't saying that you can't do, whereas in countries like China you get in a shitload of trouble for doing something like that probably right, I mean a lot of trouble, and who?
Speaker 2:knows, you could get thrown in jail for long periods of time or whatever, without a trial. I mean, there could be a lot of things. So the thought of that type of society, living in that type of society, scares me. Yeah, me too to or have an opinion about something or go wherever we want to go, but there's still parameters.
Speaker 1:It will come in slow steps, yeah, and we'll adapt and change, just like we have with all of technology. Well, think about it.
Speaker 2:There are rules in place, like, for example, other countries have rules in place that if you are a convicted felon, you can't enter their country. So that's a rule, like in Canada. Canada has that rule which I think is kind of funny.
Speaker 1:I guess Trump won't be going to Canada. He won't be going to.
Speaker 2:Canada. He'll be doing all zoom calls if he's elected. For God's sake, oh boy, that's a whole other deal. Yeah, but anyway, I'm just saying it's like there are rules that are in place. I mean that's why we have a justice system.
Speaker 3:That's why we have you know court system. This is not anarchy and a free for all here.
Speaker 2:But where is that dividing line? Or that delicate balance that you can achieve by being in that right place but not having it controlled to the degree that you're seeing it controlled in other areas.
Speaker 1:It's almost like they take the choice away from you.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:You know, I know we go back and forth. When I talk about getting the vaccine or not getting the vaccine, you say it's a choice. I'm like no, they didn't have it.
Speaker 2:It's a total choice.
Speaker 1:People didn't, but that's how I'm saying some of this will be.
Speaker 2:It's like well the choice is to either get it or the consequences are too severe.
Speaker 1:In this case, like you're talking about the vaccine and, as an example, you didn't have to get the vaccine but you potentially could lose your job, or there are places you can't go, and that's what I'm saying and that's where these things differentiate, because to me, yes, you can still choose, but the consequences are such that it's your livelihood just like in some of these social score situations that we're talking about, you can still choose.
Speaker 1:I can still choose to be on a college campus I'm talking about in America, here now, if it was in place, and you know if I'm protesting or jaywalking and doing a deal. I'm making that choice, knowing what the consequences are, when you're really feeling like you're just doing what is morally right to you.
Speaker 2:I think when you think about during the pandemic, it's like do you think that there was an option for people to get vaccinated there in China? Oh, I'm sure An option.
Speaker 1:Not no, I'm sure, I'm sure there wasn't yeah.
Speaker 2:No option. I doubt there was an option. Or if there was an option, then again the consequences were severe. But here we're just all arguing about shit all over the place.
Speaker 2:Nobody wants to do this. Everybody all arguing about shit all over the place. Nobody wants to do this, everybody doesn't. I mean, it's just it's so much different. There's parts of having one voice that I think are valuable, but it can also be super dangerous. There's definite things that the only time we've ever really come together per se as a country and had a voice that was very much in harmony was after 9-11. I mean, really World, world War II after World War II is the same thing. So the social credit score there is focused on financial, judicial, so punishment in the judicial system. Commercial meaning anti-fraud, trying to coordinate with a lot of the companies. So those are more companies that are commercial, trying to coordinate more with companies Societal, supporting this moral society, and I think that's where that big component comes in of shaming.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 2:And the government, literally, you know, shaming people by putting what their indiscretion is up on a big screen in the middle of the city, yeah, it's crazy, yeah, in your neighborhoods.
Speaker 1:So letting people that you live with know that you suck, yeah, because you did that.
Speaker 2:Have you ever seen the show Handmaid's Tale?
Speaker 1:No, oh man.
Speaker 2:You got to watch that one. I mean, it's a society that is taken over by people who are real fundamentalists. It's kind of dark and creepy, but people have no rights.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah I digress.
Speaker 1:But definitely an interesting topic. I know when I brought it up a couple of weeks ago you hadn't even heard of it, no. So that's why I thought it would be fun to just kind of bring some of the things to light, dive into it a little bit, share some of the information and make sure people know that, just to you know, pay attention to things that are happening and what are some of the information and make sure people know that, just to you know. Pay attention to things that are happening and what are some of the reasons behind it.
Speaker 1:Well, and ask questions and ask questions, and I do think a lot of things that are happening in the US are based on some of these things, and it just will not surprise me if, down the road I'm not saying it'll be labeled as such, but I think we're already like I said, there's a lot of things that are similar to it, and especially with the artificial intelligence now in play in so many facets, so many facets of what we do, in the workplace in, just like in everything, it's everywhere.
Speaker 1:now it's weird because all of a sudden it was kind of this, you heard. Sudden, it was kind of this, you heard about it and kind of.
Speaker 2:And now I can write papers for people and everything. Yeah, that's what.
Speaker 1:I'm saying it's just like it's everywhere now and it's a thing very quickly that happened very quickly, so I'm going to make sure that you are not on the blacklist, ok. I appreciate that yeah.
Speaker 2:I do.
Speaker 1:I'll put in some recommendations for you You're not smoking on trains and you know, walking my dog off the leash.
Speaker 2:No leash, no leash.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and please don't shame me on public monitors. Yeah, I mean I might make you sit out in the front yard with a sign I got drunk last night. No, I didn't, I know. I'm just saying.
Speaker 2:You want to shame me? That would be the way to do it yeah. All right. Well to all of you out there. Just know that this is not a super dark topic, but it's definitely a topic that is important, probably for you to at least be aware of.
Speaker 1:And I've learned a lot just preparing for it. Interesting, Just very interesting. And when you hear some of the things it's like, wow, I know you don't think things can happen here, but they do.
Speaker 2:They do, and I think what's important to note is that things are happening in these little segments that you don't even really notice.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you just adjust and it's like oh, under the guise of a specific thing and then it's turned into something else.
Speaker 2:A lot of it has to do with the manipulation of language on different bills and the government and stuff like that, because then you can. If it's more open-ended, then it can be used for a lot of different things. So I don't know. I feel like it's important to be aware.
Speaker 1:I mean when we're talking. When I was talking before, I know we're wrapping this up, but it just made me think of you know how everything's smart, and I learned recently that your TV smart TVs have microphones also. That's true, and there is a setting so you can turn off, like where you don't want your. You can turn the microphone up to share information also. Oh, okay, so everything's smart. Everything has microphones, everything has cameras.
Speaker 2:And we, no, we're not walking away. Paranoid.
Speaker 1:Not at all. But we have microphones, right Blonde brunette and a mic here. Yeah, we're not tied into the internet just yet, though.
Speaker 2:They're just in our little Zoom recorder.
Speaker 1:For fun here. So hopefully you all got some information that will be useful, or just a little something that makes you scratch your head and go, hmm, and educate yourself just a little bit more. You can find us out on all those socials Facebook, tiktok and Instagram so check us out and until next time, have a wonderful, wonderful week guys. Listen to that positivity. I was just going to say peace out.
Speaker 2:Yeah that we're doing that too.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay.
Speaker 2:Make this little thing with my fingers when I say that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so envision that Peace out.
Speaker 2:See you guys next week.
Speaker 1:All right, everybody Bye, bye, outro Music.