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Terrorism is barely an inconvenience. Just now in another top HN post, terrorism accounts for less than 0.001% of US deaths. That's percent so less than 1 in 10

Terrorism is barely an inconvenience. Just now in another top HN post, terrorism accounts for less than 0.001% of US deaths. That's percent so less than 1 in 100k. It essentially does not matter. It could increase tenfold and I'd be fine with it. But the point I am trying to make is that surveillance does not work to stop the crimes people actually care about. Even if your biggest fear is terrorism, surveillance is not gonna stop somebody ramming their car into a crowd. Those who want to create fear have a myriad of ways which cannot be stopped without absolute, total surveillance, which makes any kind of resistance impossible. I don't wanna live in a society where I have a 10% chance to get caught littering. Not because I wanna litter but because at some point, I might find myself homeless and needing to steal food to not starve. Or I might find myself living in a dictatorship and needing to drone the fucker who's sending my friends/family to a gulag. Everything has a price. If the price of reducing common crime by 10% reduces the chance of a successful revolution by 20%, then it's not worth it. Because people are only free as long as they revoke their consent. If 50% of the population agree they live in a dictatorship, they should have a way to remove the government, whether by a ballot box or an ammo box.

bombcar 1y ago
Mass surveillance is an attempt to make a high trust society artificially out of a low trust one. It somewhat kind of works, which is the problem. The real solution is deeper, and harder, and longer.
- martin-t 1y ago
  Nobody wants to talk about the real solution because it involves making all social relations based on consent. Choosing not just your partners but classmates, teachers, colleagues, and neighbors. First, it's less efficient. But most importantly, it involves making value judgements of other people - identifying those who cause most conflict in society and not consenting to their interactions with us - not consenting to their participation. And that's a no-go because we're all supposed to believe we're all equal.

bombcar 1y ago

Mass surveillance is an attempt to make a high trust society artificially out of a low trust one. It somewhat kind of works, which is the problem. The real solution is deeper, and harder, and longer.

martin-t 1y ago
Nobody wants to talk about the real solution because it involves making all social relations based on consent. Choosing not just your partners but classmates, teachers, colleagues, and neighbors. First, it's less efficient. But most importantly, it involves making value judgements of other people - identifying those who cause most conflict in society and not consenting to their interactions with us - not consenting to their participation. And that's a no-go because we're all supposed to believe we're all equal.