To teach my students the fallacy of "I have nothing to hide", I simply ask them to tell the whole class about the last time they masturbated.

It is surprisingly efficient, they immediately grasp it. I never had someone argue with me on the subject after that.

This entry was edited (yesterday, 5:36 AM)
in reply to ploum

"I don't mind surveillance. I haven't done anything wrong"

"Until they change the definition of 'wrong'."

Reminder: Republicans are voyeurs & pedophiles demanding gender checks for kindergarten baseball.
dailykos.com/stories/2026/3/13…

thehill.com/opinion/campaign/6…

ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/06…

erininthemorning.com/p/opinion…

ohiocapitaljournal.com/2022/06…

Democracy relies upon the right to privacy, even in public settings.

in reply to Nicole Parsons

@Npars01
I think maybe we need to point this out more.


To teach my students the fallacy of "I have nothing to hide", I simply ask them to tell the whole class about the last time they masturbated.

It is surprisingly efficient, they immediately grasp it. I never had someone argue with me on the subject after that.


in reply to ploum

unfortunately, this amplifies the idea that privacy is about standing naked under the shower. It isn't.

It's the manipulatability that is the problem - for individuals as much as for society. But not the Victorian era blackmailing type.

The privacy that's at stake is the size of your wallet and who controls it. By guiding you to some products while dismissing others. About your political choices and who can manipulate these - by showing you some information and withholding other. About your thoughts about society, about your empathy. Because if Big Tech knows what touches you, they can touch you - and they do, because they know, so they can.

Our privacy and our society is at stake *because* people think that it's the nekkidpics they're after.

in reply to ploum

That is actually something I openly shared with my schoolmate in (french) collège (should be around the age of 12-14).

Cue those schoolmates harrasing me with question that I eventually stopped answering them (a few months later).

They were so immature and childish. (which, now that I think about it, might be exactly what they where. Immature child.)