Change from below requires organization and coordination, and those things require leadership.
Were MLK or Ghandi fascist, because they were effective leaders?
Frankly, I find more of a fascistic tinge in the stock HN response to surveillance:
- Governments will never do anything; democracy is not fit for purpose
- A ‘natural elite’ of hacker Übermensch can avoid dystopia for themselves with hacking skills and expensive crypto currencies. The masses cannot be saved as they are inherently stupid and submissive. Things will always get worse, especially for them; abandon them.
Why such fatalism? The GDPR hasn’t even hit the books yet, and it’s having a transformative effect on how large US tech companies process data for everyone. We’re just beginning to see the tide turn on public opinion on Facebook.
I’ve hope for popular interest in privacy and anti-authoritarianism yet.
2. Power corrupts, so the overall answer is: never.