Does everyone understand what that is?
Few people do, and I certainly didn’t until a few months ago, when someone first mentioned it to me. Social credit is basically a numeric score assigned to people based on their behavior. You know how credit scores work? Well, this ranking system is stored in a database, which monitors behavior across the country in real time. Pretty scary, isn’t it? People are paid to report on their neighbors, which creates polarization and forces people to conform to socially desired standards by engaging only with people of the same social standing or higher.
Here are some examples of factors considered in calculating someone’s personal score:· Loitering
· Smoking in no-smoking areas
· Having a messy yard
· Gossiping (how many people would be in trouble for this one?)
· Spending too much time on video games
· Not paying bills on time
· Visiting sick parents when not allowed
· Spreading fake news (news deemed Fake by Governments because it goes against their scripted narrative)
· Not stopping in front of crosswalks when driving
· Forgetting to pay a fine
· Saying something unacceptable online
· Buying a certain product that you, personally, are not allowed to own
· Leaving a bad review
· Hanging out with a friend or family member who has a poor social credit score
· Protesting anything (forget it, because that’s not allowed – Remember the Truckers, and many who supported the Truckers who suddenly had their bank accounts frozen.)
Here are some examples for businesses, too: · Paying taxes on time
· Maintaining necessary licenses
· Fulfilling environmental protection requirements
· Meeting product quality standards
· Meeting requirements specific to the industry
· Complying with anything else deemed necessary
So what happens if you receive a low score because you violated one of these rules? Maybe you stood up and said no, you wouldn’t allow someone to violate your rights, or, worse, you criticized your government. (Again, remember the Truckers and all the peaceful protestors who showed up to support them). Well, a low score means low trustworthiness. You might suddenly find yourself under a travel ban, or your internet speed might suddenly decrease, or you could lose your job and be unable to find a new one in your industry, or your housing might be taken away, or you might be barred from attending certain schools, or your banking activity could restricted, meaning you would lose access to your money. (Kind of like what just happened to many of the supporters of the Truckers). Your property might be taken from you, or you could be denied the ability to own property at all. You might become a social pariah.
People’s freedoms and choices would suddenly be gone. Your social credit score would be subject to the politically correct but morally bankrupt whims of the powers that be. Imagine going to buy a pizza and finding that the digital system you have to use says, Nope, you were bad and lost a bunch of credits. You can’t eat out, order a pizza, or buy milk or eggs today. And just because, those tens of thousands of dollars in your savings has now been taken by the government and given to an organization of their choosing. Basically, in a digital dictatorship, if you do not fit the mold and behave exactly how the state wants you to behave, you can be punished, and your low social score can be posted publicly for everyone to see. Rights are slowly eroded. In schools, children may be taught a political agenda in the curriculum, and parents’ rights to their children may be stripped. These are the kinds of nightmarish oppressions we read about in dystopian novels. But wait, haven’t some school districts in fact just stripped parents’ rights to the children?
The social credit system is a totalitarian system that can be used by the state to crush rebellious individuals, even if the rebellion is for good. Businesses can be blacklisted, and people too. The idea is to make everyone comply with government policies and regulations to avoid having a low score, and governments can then use that data to provide grants and loans to businesses that have high scores. The system rewards those who spy and report on their neighbors and yes even family members. Even local governments are rewarded by the social credit system only if they implement and follow orders from the central federal government.
The rewards of having a high score include easier access to loans and jobs, travel perks, and a higher priority when getting bureaucratic paperwork through, basically no red tape—kind of like how it works now for the ultra-powerful and elite. You know like getting a court date in one day to push a political agenda with a politically corrupt judge, but yet anyone else who hasn’t conformed waits years for justice. But if you have a high score and associate with someone who has a low score, say a son or daughter who doesn’t toe the line, a dissident who reminds you of the young people who have always stood up to tyranny, you can quickly lose your high score by association and suffer the same punishment inflicted on those with a low score. You may suddenly find yourself cut off from the internet, suffering public humiliation, and being denied access to jobs, loans, and goods and services. This kind of system is meant to divide people. Neighbors spying on neighbors, family turning their backs on family, everyone living in perpetual fear.
The potential scope of a social credit system is enormous. Think about it: Companies could track your activities and give you corporate rewards for your compliant behavior, just like credit cards do with rewards benefits. And then there is the government using tracking software on your cell phones to spy on you and track who you see and where you go. But the government wouldn’t do that now would they? But in a social credit system, you could suddenly be blocked from making a transaction, or a surcharge might suddenly be added, or you could be completely unable to purchase food, goods, or anything. Think of those who exercise their free speech, question vaccine side effects, or advocate for their rights and their children’s rights. All of this could suddenly make you a target. Your debit card could get cancelled over tweets you make, or your home loan could be denied because you pulled your kids from school, or your PayPal or eBay account might suddenly be invalid because a friend flagged you for posting something that questions whether your government is lying to you.
And don’t forget all that money it took you years to save in your bank account could suddenly disappear.
Sometimes I read books and wonder where authors come up with this kind of stuff, the stuff nightmares are made of. It’s definitely not the world I want for my kids or myself. For example, in a country like the one I’ve described above, someone who holds conservative Christian values or voices his or her opinion on political, social, and religious topics might suddenly fall into the negative numbers for a social credit score. Can you imagine if something like this suddenly showed up on the horizon in your once free country?
In Canada, we have the Charter of Rights, as I talked about in many blogs. In America, you have the First Amendment, which says you have the freedom of speech, and the Fourth Amendment, which says you have the right to privacy. But what happens when backroom legislation and executive orders are issued to override these? Remember what the Prime Minister of Canada did just a week ago with the Emergency Order, and why exactly did he lift it just as quickly? Could it be the bankers were beating their Politician Whores because people were suddenly doing a bank run and pulling all their money from the banks?
This systematic stripping away of rights and backroom executive orders and legislation is one of the most dangerous possibilities in a free country. You know where the social credit system does exist? In China, where the threat is real, where they have hundreds of millions of surveillance cameras using facial recognition software to perform surveillance on their citizens. And who is in control? Well, the system is, and it’s based on complex algorithms evaluating various kinds of data streams to assess position. The issue with online ranking systems is that their algorithms have been artificially designed. How they work is unknown to the public. A lack of transparency makes it hard to know who designed these systems and how they’re being used, and algorithms can easily be manipulated.
But it would never happen here, right? Not in a free country, where a government respects the rights of its citizens? The frightening thing is that my blog would not be allowed in a social credit system. And don’t forget the social media giants who are actively censoring all the dissenting opinions that go against the scripted narrative.
Remember the many wars our grandfathers fought? Mine fought in the First and Second World Wars, and my great, great, great grandfather fought in the Civil War, as well. All these wars were for our freedom.
Learn more about the social credit system here.
A social credit system. Can you imagine being unable to be yourself, terrified to even love people anymore? As several have said as of late, this is the one inch we must not yield. Remember humanity is about love, and there is no room in a social credit scenario for love.
