Awaiting The Signal
Coming Soon To A Dystopia Near You
Awaiting The Signal is not science fiction. It’s real. Well, most of it. AI isn’t walking around as 1950s-style movie robots. Yet.
However, the Administration is working with Palantir to connect government databases from the IRS, the Social Security Administration, DHS and others to build a dossier on everyone. Adding information from data brokers, social media, and other private sources is easy. And the Administration is already trying to get their hands on voter rolls. While this is supposedly not part of the plan for “improving government efficiency,” neither was demolishing the East Wing.
Creating a MAGA score hasn’t been discussed. But the Administration is now grading the Media. How big a leap is it to imagine Stephen Miller deciding this would be a good idea? Would Napping Don, the Orange Orbán, stand in his way?
The Trump Administration produces graft, corruption, and destruction of institutions and norms like cows generate methane. They’re good at it. They know that being held accountable for what they’re doing would be unpleasant at best. Which means they need to make sure accountability doesn’t happen. Since they’ve proven themselves adept at twisting the law into shapes that make pretzels jealous, the legal restrictions won’t stand in their way. Connect the dots and you get Awaiting The Signal.
Is this over-the-top paranoia? Sure, but that doesn’t mean it’s not realistic. Don’t take my word for it. Here’s how Claude AI evaluates the premise.
“The strip is plausible in infrastructure—the surveillance apparatus exists or is being built. The paranoia lies in assuming authoritarian intent will activate it for political persecution. But that gap is narrower than comfortable. Once you have the mechanism and the motive, authorization becomes a procedural formality, not a safeguard. The mechanisms described are buildable with existing technology and the historical pattern of such systems being misused is documented.”
So there’s that. As for Stephen Miller being in charge rather than Trump, that’s not science fiction either. But that’s an essay for another strip.
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