What things that are legal today could become illegal in 50 years?

Being queer 🫠

Republicans want to redefine transgenderism as "gender identity fraud". RFK wants to send neurodivergent people to labor camps. You do the math.

Dissent

protesting

Already illegal in China and Russia to name a few, no need to wait 50 years for this to happen
- its gone beyond protesting, protesting is active, Im not so sure about China, but Russia is so far gone in it's forever war mentality that its gone straight into thoughtcrime now.
- And in the UK

Encryption. For the poors, that is.

It still sounds so insane. Imagine it being illegal for us two to share some public keys. It's like banning fundamental maths
- That already exists in one setting, the field of nuclear weapons design. See born secret.
Well okay then, use steganography.
Secure Space Encryptor (https://paranoiaworks.mobi/) is one that I know and they have source code published, although I personally don't understand coding so I can't guarantee how secure it is, but its been out for like a decade and I haven't heard anything bad about it, and its on F-Droid.
They won't know you are secretly sending an encoded "ATTACK AT DAWN" message hidden inside the cute cat photo. (I mean unless they just shut down the entire communications infrastructure and even ban mailing stuff, which is unfeasible because of the economy)
- They'll use ai to do pattern matches on available data to assassinate leaders of dissent or those capable of organizing resistance. Knowledge of encryption is uncommon enough of a population to be an acceptable cost.

Mentioning climate change. Seems every government is backtracking on it.

Private ownership.
Why would you even want this, when you can book it as a service without all the hassles and this highly criminal "privacy". What are you? A drug dealer? A pedophile? Both?

Ah yes. the rise of neo-communism. Soon the circle will be complete.

Civillian use of Drones.

I'm very certain there's gonna be a 9/11-like terrorist attack involving drones and then governments all around the world are gonna get extremely paranoid and just ban it unless you get a special permit that only big corporations can get.

I'm honestly surprised we haven't seen an assassination by drone from a nonstate actor yet. It's cheap, would subvert many of the protections aimed at stopping shooters, and security likely wouldn't react in time or have the equipment to effectively stop it.
- I’m honestly surprised we haven’t seen an assassination by drone from a nonstate actor yet.
  There was the 2018 Caracas drone attack. Though that one is somewhat muddy in whether it actually was an assassination attempt or a false-flag attack done by the government itself.
- We don't have the clearance. 🤷🏼‍♂️

Leaving your house without your papers and government issued ID.

In the Netherlands that's already a thing for anyone aged 14 and up
- Really so if your walking your dog you need your ID?
- And it hurts absolutely nobody.
  Turns out, the problem isn't carrying ID, the problem is US cops.
I don't usually like SovCits, but like maybe we should really start popularizing SovCit movements. 🤔
- I always had some sympathy with them. It just seems like they want off this awful capitalistic treadmill we find ourselves on. Everyone always laughs and belittles them, but I'm always rooting for em just a lil bit
Or, you know, just being alive without them.

If right-wing nutjobs keep running the government I am going to say "birth control" and "sodomy" are on the chopping block. Hopefully by 50 years this won't still be the issue but its what they want now. Just to note that the old "sodomy" laws made everything that wasn't PIV illegal. So if you like oral sex that will be illegal now. Sorry everyone no more fun

Free expression, freedom of speech. Privacy. Home ownership.

I don't think americans will have to wait 50 years :(
What do you mean by the home ownership piece?
- The billionaires paying for campaign contributions of most politicians in modern democracies (seem to) want to get back to having "company towns" for each of the business they own.
- Private equity figured out that the 2008 panic happened because people were defaulting on mortgages. So they just went straight into the housing market as landlords. They’ll eventually lobby congress to make it illegal for the poor to own housing
- you think the oligarchs are going to continue letting us own our stuff instead of renting it?

Dissent against the government.

Already illegal here in the uk to protest climate change.
- Or to protest against genocide

Liberty and privacy. And it will take way less than 50 years.

Cash. Every transaction will be online, so it can be tracked

Living in an "unchristian" way in any form, be it being an atheist, LGBTQ+, etc.

This is what arson is for.

Emulators. There's a crack down that continues to happen as old systems become streaming services.

Unlocking your bootloader

🇪🇺 By October it will be illegal to view porn with an unlocked bootloader

Computers and phones that don't have locked bootloaders. You know how North Korean phones and computers alert the State every time a disallowed file is accessed or the user does something that doesn't align with The Ideology? It's going to be like that. Civilian ownership of machine tools will of course be banned on a "possession = incarceration" basis and not just banning sales. Air conditioning won't become all-out illegal but it will be regulated as rigorously as gun ownership in countries outside the US are, most people wont have lawful access to it anymore and the ones that do only get to cool things down to survivable temperatures and not comfortable temperatures. People will be running illegal refrigerant labs in their basement and making illegal thermostat modchips and everything.

There's no way the US isn't going to eventually criminalize all positive drug tests (like many other shithole countries have done including Japan, China and Singapore) once they reverse the last 40 years of marijuana reform and then punish everyone who had any part in it. Having been involved in the cannabis industry is going to be like having been a Jew in 1930s Germany. Same with being transgender, lgbt, or neurodivergent. It goes without saying that not being a maga christian will someday become a "get sent to a torture camp" offense as well. All porn will become as illegal as csam currently is. Cars won't actually get banned but the non elite class will lose access to them all the same because the government will enable corporations to continue colluding to do price fixing and generating fake scarcity. The lucky ones with prestigious State Approved science or military jobs may be able to petition to be allowed to buy one under government assistance (which is really just an unfairly priced loan in disguise) with a multi-year waiting list similar to how the car situation in the Soviet Union was. Driving rights will likely be tied to ideological alignment in some extent. At the very least, testing positive for nonphysoactive metaboltics of any banned substance will be treated the same as a dui but being lgbt, neurodivergent or non-christian may be also be punished the same as a dui becuase they'd argue it's "moral impairment" or some shit.

Voting for anyone outside of The Party during our fake elections will of course be a big no-no. The delusional decisions leading to all of this are also going to result in food shortages and mass starvation. People living in strategically important population centers may experience less hardship on average, just like in the Soviet Union. Of course toilet paper is a thing we'll all have to learn to live without sooner or later.

A long time ago learning skills like machining and chemistry while stockpiling guns and ammo would have been the thing to do but good people have become such a minority that I fear the best we can do is make the most of the time we have left before things get a lot harder and a lot less.. worthwhile.

Having been involved in the cannabis industry is going to be like having been a Jew in 1930s Germany. Same with being transgender, lgbt, or neurodivergent.
I'm a trans Latina in a gay relationship. My partner and I already fled the US due to the current administration.
Being queer in the US is already like being queer during the early stages of Hitler's reich. Being brown means that you're at risk of getting deported to a torture camp in a country you have no connection to. I'm sorry but I fail to see the difference.
- All I know is that I hate these bigots, everyone who supports them, and everyone who doesn't disagree with them with every ounce of my being. I don't think I truly understood the meaning of "hatred" up until the last couple of years when the majority of the fucking population decided engaging in ideological warfare for the fascist agenda was what they believed in.
  Death to fascism.
Of course toilet paper is a thing we'll all have to learn to live without sooner or later.
Unless they ban washing private parts with water or water access gets restricted.

FOSS running directly on metal

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intel_Management_Engine

In the US: Not wholly illegal but I predict erosion of the 4th amendment under the guise of keeping the country safe. I predict the definition of a "reasonable" search and seizure will expand.

Across the world: as someone else mentioned, encryption is going to start getting a lot more attention as well.

I also predict erosion of 2nd Amendment for non-whites
- You mean like the black panthers and the nra?

LGBTQ+

I'm not any of it, but I do support it.

Dumping junk in space

Well that might be the case, with the tiniest nag that in order to get into space one has to be very rich.
So even if it's illegal it would still be done. And no one would bet an eye.
- With current developments it's becoming surprisingly cheap to launch your own satellite into space.
  Still way too expensive for your average joe to do without the intention of somehow turning a profit, but you can do it for less than €100k today, with prices trending downwards. Feels weird to say, but launching a satellite is currently significantly cheaper than buying a home

Driving your own car.

But not in a good way. You’re expected to just die.

Disagree on the last part. They want to erode ownership. Driving will be a subscription of some sort.
- Poors will be priced out by insurance companies. A large auto manufacturer, probably Tesla will buy one of the enormous insurers and start by offering lower rates for self-driving. Many will sign up and the standard startup playbook will follow. Personal vehicles will become luxury items and then you will be required to subscribe.
  I wonder what the poor right will say when they don't own their car anymore?maybe they will have f350 self-driving trucks too and it'll be ok.

Being queer 🫠

fingers crossed for child marriage becoming illegal (and in less than 50 years. the sooner the better)

Being trans, wait you said 50 years not 0.5? Haha lol we're so fucked

Don't be silly. The concept of being trans is a relatively new thing, by historical timelines. Fuck me, older black grandparents lived "Whites only" signs. I've seen them.
F@g bashing was a legit sport when I was a teen. Jump dudes coming out of gay bars? Boys will be boys! And no one objected. What are you, a f@g?
Two steps forwards, one step back. Rinse and repeat.
And we ALL have to fight. Men had to fight to the death for labor rights, now they got a holiday, though we've forgotten what it was about.
Fighting might mean your personal extinction. Pick a fucking side, pick up a rifle, be there when you're needed and train. I train.
That pic of me is not a fucking uniform. It's not a "cool guy" pose. (But you gotta admit, it's a great pic!) It's actually ME, working to learn clothing and weather and arms and tool belts and ammo and whatever fucking works in the field. I strap on my AR and pistol, run and jump and sweat and shoot while shaking like a fucking leaf. It takes hard work and sweat. If anyone is on the fence about getting armed and trained, best time to plant a tree is now.
Gonna let the red hats have a monopoly on violence? Nah. Not me. As for me and my house, we serve John Browning (Gun nerd joke, apologies. TWO WORLD WARS!)
I should note; Had hell finding a pic of "liberal armed protestors". Pic I found, meh, those guys aren't looking too "practical", let alone "tactical". Didn't used to be hard to find such pics. Huh. Make of that what you will.
Final note if one wants to get strapped: PRACTICE IN ALL CONDITIONS. The slightest discomfort gets magnified 10x over a very short period of time when the going gets rough.
(Sorry OP, just venting.)
- The concept of being trans is a relatively new thing, by historical timelines.
  The historical record for what we would now call transgender people goes back over 4,000 to Ancient Babylon. And that's just the written historical record.
Nah we'll win
We got this, and we got eachother.

Breathing.

Who honestly knows at this point in time?

The right to read.

https://www.gnu.org/philosophy/right-to-read.en.html

Certain food additives.

I would hope being rich, but I'm not counting on it.

Being poor is already pretty illegal with no signs of changing

Owning real estate. Similar to being a “qualified investor” today

A lot of activity on the Internet

Positive: ecocide universally accepted as criminal and backed up with meaningfully disincentivising penalties

Negative: being remotely off grid in any way. Probably a symptom of me being British, but I fully expect there to be a point where we're required to be constantly tracked (location, what you consume, what you see, etc) in real time and it'll become a crime to evade it.

Positive: ecocide universally accepted as criminal and backed up with meaningfully disincentivising penalties
I hope so. But I find it hard to believe that enough world leaders are clean to get that thru. So much of what is weird in the news today makes perfect sense if I add these words to the end of the headline: "after a coke binge".

Slaughtering animals for food.

The odds of that happening are pretty damned low.
It'd be great, but super unlikely
In 50 years I don't see it.
Just for funsies then?

Modifying most things (cars, android ROMs, PCs, etc.) It is right now to an extent but it will probably get worse.

Talking about the mortality of the warlord. Dabbing.

All the above, but probably in 5 years.

Thinking.

Literally anything given that time period

"The year is 2075. Yesterday was the day the last legal thing became illegal. And what was the last legal thing, you ask? The answer is obvious in retrospect. It was law itself."
- Not "everything". Anything.