Data colonialism is incompatible with democracy in all its forms

Evidence

And yet this seemingly inevitable order has a fundamental flaw from the perspective of human subjects. That flaw is its incompatibility with a different kind of necessity, the most basic component of freedom, which we call the minimal integrity of the self. The emerging colonialist and capitalist order is therefore, under whatever disguise it operates, incompatible with every political structure built on freedom, including democracy in all its forms, liberal or otherwise. — Nick Couldry & Ulises A. Mejias, The Costs of Connection, 597

Categorization

• XREF: The ‘minimal integrity of the self’ as freedom’s basic component echoes the surveillance school’s self-formation arguments (e.g., MacKinnon, Zuboff), but grounds it in a colonial framework.