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Yes, it really is so bad. People are unbelievably ignorant of history. What happens when the state intelligence apparatus has the ability to perfectly surveil
by cal5k 3y ago
Yes, it really is so bad. People are unbelievably ignorant of history.
What happens when the state intelligence apparatus has the ability to perfectly surveil the population? Look no further than what the Stasi accomplished - it becomes trivially easy to discredit political opposition, journalists, business leaders, or any other person or group standing in the way of the powerful.
People split hairs about this kind of oversight, or that kind of oversight, but when the powerful are overseeing their own surveillance apparatus - using secret courts, secret warrants, and all manner of other methods for hiding the true scope of the surveillance - I do not believe it can be contained.
- win32k 3y agoBut the Stasi was a secret police in a totalitarian state, not a liberal democracy. Apples to oranges. Good faith actors in government, with intense oversight from elected officials, makes your concerns null and void.
- detaro 3y agoBecause government agencies have such a good track record of ensuring they only ever contain good faith actors and would never hide things from oversight, and such oversight would never be done by people willing to look away if it "hits the right people" or some nonsense like that.
- Qem 3y agoA liberal democracy has the ever present risk of devolving into a totalitarian state (just look at the Weimar republic or Argentina in the 70s). We must hedge our risks, fight tooth and nail so it doesn't happen, but when it eventually happens, better not to leave a well oiled, powerful machine ready for the totalitarians to crush us.