5 ms·

A global pandemic is truly perfect for a modern government: - Good chance to kill off the filthy undesirables (economic deadweights such as those who dare to b

A global pandemic is truly perfect for a modern government: - Good chance to kill off the filthy undesirables (economic deadweights such as those who dare to be ill or elderly people) - Easy to roll out mass increases of police powers and surveillance without any real opposition - Fuck it, you can basically do what you want and sycophants will still go "now is not the time to critique, we need to be united" Modern liberal democracies have been absolutely gasping for the chance to roll out some of these measures. Expect to see a "productive work time tracker" soon!

Datenstrom 6y ago
I can tell you for certain a "productive work time tracker" using computer vision and ML is being worked on right now.
- qqssccfftt 6y ago
  Yeah, but now is the time to push it out with zero repercussions because western workers will gladly take it lying down.
airstrike 6y ago
F, U and D.
- stOneskull 6y ago
  Little bit but not incorrect. See my comment for expose by Whitney Webb.
  - vzidex 6y ago
    Nope, complete FUD that shouldn't be on HackerNews. Whitney Webb writes for The Last American Vagabond, and I didn't have to dig deep on their site to find material on "Metaphysics" and Illuminati et al conspiracy theories. Find a better source.
    - stOneskull 6y ago
      What? This relates to the interview and material linked to, and relevance to the topic and previous comment. Not what else is on some website. Its like you're making FUD about what is really informative.
      - vzidex 6y ago
        I'm saying that the interview linked to is an interview of a person who is the main writer for a site [1] that doesn't pass the fake news smell test. Therefore, if you want us to believe the material she presents in the interview, find a better source for said material. [1] https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/last-american-vagabonds/ https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/last-american-vagabo...
        stOneskull 6y ago
        yeah, it was interesting that rather mention anything about the interview and its content, you went to character assassination of the messenger. we could go out on a few angles from that. we let it stand, as it shows something that doesn't need explicit expression. perhaps the ministry of information will package something for you. [squarebracket]she mentions the site in the interview
    - pdkl95 6y ago
      https://epic.org/foia/epic-v-ai-commission/EPIC-19-09-11-NSCAI-FOIA-20200331-3rd-Production-pt9.pdf https://epic.org/foia/epic-v-ai-commission/EPIC-19-09-11-NSC... Here's the original document from EPIC's FOIA. I recommend reading it; Whitney Webb did a good job summarizing the document in the interview linked above.
- wernercd 6y ago
  Compared to the FUD regarding a virus that's trending to be less lethal than the normal Flu... One is a virus that'll spike and then pass (or get merged into all of the other virus's that are always trying to kill us)... The other is a virus that'll destroy freedom and lead to Authoritarian Governments...
  - noarchy 6y ago
    >Compared to the FUD regarding a virus that's trending to be less lethal than the normal Flu... Demonstrably false. The US alone is over 50,000 deaths. This is already worse than an entire year's toll for the flu. Are you going to claim that the numbers are fake? In that case, perhaps conveniently, no one can claim to be right.
    - djsumdog 6y ago
      So it's important to note, the CDC does NOT track influenza. I cannot believe how many people are getting this wrong. They track pneumonia deaths. (They do track flu for infants fatalities, but that's a very specific tracking metric that can indicate very bad outbreaks). In 2017/2018, we saw 50k ~ 60k pneumonia deaths. They then go back retroactively and estimate flu (in 2019, it was 20k to 60k). So yes, we're past 50k COVID-19 deaths, but we're comparing three months on something that has an exponential growth and taper to a yearly average. It's not a good comparison. If at the end of the year, COVID-19 deaths are at 70k, you could say it was 20k more than flu .. but keep in mind, the CDC is assigning everything as COVID-19 right now, and New York retroactively added 3,000 suspected deaths, leading to that bizarre one day spike. I did a full write up on this: https://battlepenguin.com/tech/fighting-with-the-data/ https://battlepenguin.com/tech/fighting-with-the-data/ Working with the data is fucking frustrating right now. Here are my shitty charts: https://covid19data.ml https://covid19data.ml
      - wernercd 6y ago
        I'm talking fatality rates COVID vs FLU. Right now, more information continues to come out showing that COVID has a roughly .5% fatality rate when you try to add in the massive number of people with no symptoms. Iceland, California, New York are places that back these numbers up. "keep in mind CDC is assigning everything COVID" exactly.
stOneskull 6y ago
This lady, Whitney Webb, deserves a lot of attention, and I think, awards. https://youtu.be/bGMkSNj_-7Q https://youtu.be/bGMkSNj_-7Q
zebrafish 6y ago
I'm confused at your inclusion of the word liberal here. These policies are not what I would consider to be liberal. Liberal as in laissez-faire capitalist democracies who should not impede on my ability to gather, demonstrate, worship, etc.? So we're basically saying that the liberal democracies don't want to be liberal anymore? I'm just sort of confused as to who the purported boogeyman is in this case.
- qqssccfftt 6y ago
  Liberal democracy "freedom" does not mean personal freedom, it means economic freedom. They have always been about preserving that, and it is only because technology was not effective enough before that the personal freedom tradeoff happened.
dx87 6y ago
That's something I've noticed as well, and the worst part is how willing people are to turn on their neighbors. I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen comments along the lines of "screw your freedoms, millions of people will die if you don't give up your rights". People calling the police on hairstylist neighbors who are trying to do house calls because they can't pay their rent otherwise, etc. Not to mention the whole "prove that you're an essential employee, otherwise you'll get fined for leaving your house" that is the exact opposite of innocent until proven guilty.
- mmm_grayons 6y ago
  It's the same sort of mentality that got Americans with Japanese heritage tossed into camps during WWII. Collectivism is really, really bad for individual liberty and nothing drives collectivism like a crisis. People get scared, and scared people do bad things.
GuB-42 6y ago
> Good chance to kill off the filthy undesirables (economic deadweights such as those who dare to be ill or elderly people) Government members and people in power in general tend to be older, and not always the most healthy. "Senator" means "elder" in latin, that's for a reason. And I don't think they want to be part of the "filthy undesirables". > Easy to roll out mass increases of police powers and surveillance without any real opposition Sure, but as the pandemic resolves, opposition comes back > Fuck it, you can basically do what you want and sycophants will still go "now is not the time to critique, we need to be united" Again, that's true. But again, the judgment will come later. People will look at how the government managed the crisis, compare it to what happened in other countries, and it will definitely affect the upcoming elections. And the upcoming elections is what politicians live for. > Modern liberal democracies have been absolutely gasping for the chance to roll out some of these measures. Expect to see a "productive work time tracker" soon! As if such things don't exist already. But the government already has a very good indicator on how productive you are: your revenue.
- vageli 6y ago
  > > Easy to roll out mass increases of police powers and surveillance without any real opposition > Sure, but as the pandemic resolves, opposition comes back Have we seen examples of governments relinquishing surveillance powers after the events that spurred the increase? The patriot act is still a thing in the US, and it's been almost two decades since 9/11.

Datenstrom 6y ago

I can tell you for certain a "productive work time tracker" using computer vision and ML is being worked on right now.

qqssccfftt 6y ago
Yeah, but now is the time to push it out with zero repercussions because western workers will gladly take it lying down.

airstrike 6y ago

F, U and D.

stOneskull 6y ago
Little bit but not incorrect. See my comment for expose by Whitney Webb.
- vzidex 6y ago
  Nope, complete FUD that shouldn't be on HackerNews. Whitney Webb writes for The Last American Vagabond, and I didn't have to dig deep on their site to find material on "Metaphysics" and Illuminati et al conspiracy theories. Find a better source.
  - stOneskull 6y ago
    What? This relates to the interview and material linked to, and relevance to the topic and previous comment. Not what else is on some website. Its like you're making FUD about what is really informative.
    - vzidex 6y ago
      I'm saying that the interview linked to is an interview of a person who is the main writer for a site [1] that doesn't pass the fake news smell test. Therefore, if you want us to believe the material she presents in the interview, find a better source for said material. [1] https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/last-american-vagabonds/ https://www.thelastamericanvagabond.com/last-american-vagabo...
      - stOneskull 6y ago
        yeah, it was interesting that rather mention anything about the interview and its content, you went to character assassination of the messenger. we could go out on a few angles from that. we let it stand, as it shows something that doesn't need explicit expression. perhaps the ministry of information will package something for you. [squarebracket]she mentions the site in the interview
  - pdkl95 6y ago
    https://epic.org/foia/epic-v-ai-commission/EPIC-19-09-11-NSCAI-FOIA-20200331-3rd-Production-pt9.pdf https://epic.org/foia/epic-v-ai-commission/EPIC-19-09-11-NSC... Here's the original document from EPIC's FOIA. I recommend reading it; Whitney Webb did a good job summarizing the document in the interview linked above.
wernercd 6y ago
Compared to the FUD regarding a virus that's trending to be less lethal than the normal Flu... One is a virus that'll spike and then pass (or get merged into all of the other virus's that are always trying to kill us)... The other is a virus that'll destroy freedom and lead to Authoritarian Governments...
- noarchy 6y ago
  >Compared to the FUD regarding a virus that's trending to be less lethal than the normal Flu... Demonstrably false. The US alone is over 50,000 deaths. This is already worse than an entire year's toll for the flu. Are you going to claim that the numbers are fake? In that case, perhaps conveniently, no one can claim to be right.
  - djsumdog 6y ago
    So it's important to note, the CDC does NOT track influenza. I cannot believe how many people are getting this wrong. They track pneumonia deaths. (They do track flu for infants fatalities, but that's a very specific tracking metric that can indicate very bad outbreaks). In 2017/2018, we saw 50k ~ 60k pneumonia deaths. They then go back retroactively and estimate flu (in 2019, it was 20k to 60k). So yes, we're past 50k COVID-19 deaths, but we're comparing three months on something that has an exponential growth and taper to a yearly average. It's not a good comparison. If at the end of the year, COVID-19 deaths are at 70k, you could say it was 20k more than flu .. but keep in mind, the CDC is assigning everything as COVID-19 right now, and New York retroactively added 3,000 suspected deaths, leading to that bizarre one day spike. I did a full write up on this: https://battlepenguin.com/tech/fighting-with-the-data/ https://battlepenguin.com/tech/fighting-with-the-data/ Working with the data is fucking frustrating right now. Here are my shitty charts: https://covid19data.ml https://covid19data.ml
    - wernercd 6y ago
      I'm talking fatality rates COVID vs FLU. Right now, more information continues to come out showing that COVID has a roughly .5% fatality rate when you try to add in the massive number of people with no symptoms. Iceland, California, New York are places that back these numbers up. "keep in mind CDC is assigning everything COVID" exactly.

stOneskull 6y ago

This lady, Whitney Webb, deserves a lot of attention, and I think, awards. https://youtu.be/bGMkSNj_-7Q https://youtu.be/bGMkSNj_-7Q

zebrafish 6y ago

I'm confused at your inclusion of the word liberal here. These policies are not what I would consider to be liberal. Liberal as in laissez-faire capitalist democracies who should not impede on my ability to gather, demonstrate, worship, etc.? So we're basically saying that the liberal democracies don't want to be liberal anymore? I'm just sort of confused as to who the purported boogeyman is in this case.

qqssccfftt 6y ago
Liberal democracy "freedom" does not mean personal freedom, it means economic freedom. They have always been about preserving that, and it is only because technology was not effective enough before that the personal freedom tradeoff happened.

dx87 6y ago

That's something I've noticed as well, and the worst part is how willing people are to turn on their neighbors. I've lost count of the amount of times I've seen comments along the lines of "screw your freedoms, millions of people will die if you don't give up your rights". People calling the police on hairstylist neighbors who are trying to do house calls because they can't pay their rent otherwise, etc. Not to mention the whole "prove that you're an essential employee, otherwise you'll get fined for leaving your house" that is the exact opposite of innocent until proven guilty.

mmm_grayons 6y ago
It's the same sort of mentality that got Americans with Japanese heritage tossed into camps during WWII. Collectivism is really, really bad for individual liberty and nothing drives collectivism like a crisis. People get scared, and scared people do bad things.

GuB-42 6y ago

> Good chance to kill off the filthy undesirables (economic deadweights such as those who dare to be ill or elderly people) Government members and people in power in general tend to be older, and not always the most healthy. "Senator" means "elder" in latin, that's for a reason. And I don't think they want to be part of the "filthy undesirables". > Easy to roll out mass increases of police powers and surveillance without any real opposition Sure, but as the pandemic resolves, opposition comes back > Fuck it, you can basically do what you want and sycophants will still go "now is not the time to critique, we need to be united" Again, that's true. But again, the judgment will come later. People will look at how the government managed the crisis, compare it to what happened in other countries, and it will definitely affect the upcoming elections. And the upcoming elections is what politicians live for. > Modern liberal democracies have been absolutely gasping for the chance to roll out some of these measures. Expect to see a "productive work time tracker" soon! As if such things don't exist already. But the government already has a very good indicator on how productive you are: your revenue.

vageli 6y ago
> > Easy to roll out mass increases of police powers and surveillance without any real opposition > Sure, but as the pandemic resolves, opposition comes back Have we seen examples of governments relinquishing surveillance powers after the events that spurred the increase? The patriot act is still a thing in the US, and it's been almost two decades since 9/11.