What is a good comeback or argument towards people who say “But I have nothing to hide” when you try to information them that privacy is important?

  • infjarchninja@lemmy.ml
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    4 hours ago

    As a retired psychotherapist I can tell you, that every single person on this planet has something to hide.

    Obviously, psychotherapy offers a safe, private and confidential space to speak about those things. Society does not offer this safe space. So Humans hide things.

    Sometimes these hidden things are even hidden from the person.

    we have all broken our own, and societies, moral codes, the things we do not share with other people.

    Our own sexual preferences are the most hidden of all subjects. Even in this so called Enlightened age. Sexuality still reigns supreme as the most hidden of all subjects.

    I always say to people spouting the “I have nothing to hide” argument.

    If you have nothing to hide!

    Why do you continue to wear clothes when you go out.

    Clearly it has nothing to do with the fact that: a CCTV camera on the corner of your street, a camera in a passing car, a RING doorbell facing towards the street, school kids filming with their phones, will film you and intrude upon your private life.

    It is because you have something to hide.

    For instance: Examples of the things that people hide.

    As we see this quite regularly with our politicians and those generally in powerful positions:

    The Pro family values political evangelists who espouses that homosexuality is a sin, and then gets caught with a male prostitute.

    In psychoanalysis this this called “Splitting”. Its where the politician projects all his hidden, unacceptable parts of himself, in this case his homosexual preferences, and projects them onto other people in society. Those bad bad people who are homosexuals.

    Or the pro child protection evangelist politician, who gets caught with gigabytes of child abuse images on their laptop. Same thing.

    Its the same with the recent rise in the Right Wing anti-everything brigade;

    anti-immigrant, who most likely had a foreign girlfriend when they were young, and are now ashamed of it because their mates are anti-immigrant. Group think.

    anti-abortion, probably got a girl pregnant, wasnt man enough to support her, and left her no choice to get an abortion. Misogyny

    anti-homosexual, probably a repressed homosexual who fantasises about sex with same sex partners. Far too ashamed to come out.

    anti-this anti-that; Oh the shame!

    This always speaks more about the hidden belief systems that those people carry. It is not about the people onto whom they are trying to project there own personal stuff.

    To be human is to have a private life, and to keep it secret.