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"Thankfully, we live in a beautifully democratic and capitalistic society where we can fight in court." Of course he's "thankful" for that, since in our "beaut
by toomanyrichies 8mo ago
"Thankfully, we live in a beautifully democratic and capitalistic society where we can fight in court."
Of course he's "thankful" for that, since in our "beautifully democratic and capitalistic" society, Flock can use their $658 million of VC funding [1] to wage lawfare against the have-nots with their armies of lobbyists and lawyers. [2]
1. https://websets.exa.ai/websets/directory/flock-safety-funding https://websets.exa.ai/websets/directory/flock-safety-fundin...
2. https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/lobbyists?cycle=2025&id=D000116304 https://www.opensecrets.org/federal-lobbying/clients/lobbyis...
- ahartmetz 8mo agoFelony contempt of business model? Weak. Today, companies sue for terrorist contempt of business model! https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/felony-contempt-business-model-lexmarks-anti-competitive-legacy https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2019/06/felony-contempt-busine...
- paxys 8mo agoIt isn't even just about money. It's more apparent than ever that freedom, democracy, justice, human rights in this country are increasily reserved for those with the right political alignments.
- therobots927 8mo agoIt’s not so much about political alignment as much as it’s about your bank account.
- estearum 8mo agoNot really.
- rchaud 8mo agoApple has more cash reserves on hand than most countries do and yet its CEO had to scramble to stand behind Trump during the inauguration and offer a million-dollar tribute to stay in his good graces. Power > money.
- jlarocco 8mo agoAnd worst of all he had to watch "Melania" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melania_(film)#Release https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melania_(film)#Release
- eleventyseven 8mo agoHe didn't have to do a single damn thing. He did the cost-benefit analysis and chose to cozy up to a corrupt administration. Given how much the typical Apple consumer skews left and has extreme brand loyalty, if Apple got tariffed simply because Tim failed to bow down, Apple would be in a stronger position to fight it than any other tech company. They could have stood up, but chose not to.
- zipy124 8mo agoI think your forgetting that governments can just shut a company down, or even worse completely take it over and nationalise it. At the end of the day sovereigns rule over all else. Money means nothing when a gun is pointed at your head.
- direwolf20 8mo agoHow do we know the typical apple user skews left?
- andrekandre 8mo ago> Given how much the typical Apple consumer skews left idk, that might just be something people believe but i haven't seen any evidence of that... many right-leaning pundits are apple users; even rush limbaugh was a mac user!
- overfeed 8mo agoThe messed up thing is that despite what they think, these dudes will not thrive in the chaotic world they are trying to bring forth.
- tavavex 8mo agoWhy not? They hold all the cards and have aligned one of the most powerful governments in the world with them, while wielding enough money to make almost any nation, let alone individual, more inclined toward doing what they need. They will only become more powerful.
- jackyinger 8mo agoAuthoritarian regimes don’t run on facts. They run on the primacy of Authority. Cameras record factual information. Facts are inconvenient for Authority. You know, 1984 Department of Truth style.
- greesil 8mo agoYeah but the camera was broken that day the policeman beat you. On protest day? It's magically up and running.
- PunchyHamster 8mo agowell if you never read about how any of those work you might think that. In reality they are very much interested in facts, because they give them info who to oppress harder
- XorNot 8mo agoThis is really a failure to understand how oppressive regimes work. The goal is not to accurately target people, the whole point is you don't care. The exercise of power is the point. It doesn't matter who's door you kicked in: you were right to do it no matter what, and they were guilty no matter what.
- otikik 8mo agoNo, just the right amount of wealth. Which also tends to lean on a political set. But poor people will be deprived of their liberties be them left or right. For those useful to power it will take just a little bit longer to notice.
- tkel 8mo agoSame as it's ever been. When the founders of this country cried about freedom, they meant for themselves to not pay taxes that would cover their debts, not freedom for their slaves or lower-class Americans. After all if you are at the top, then you are literally free to do as you wish
- queenkjuul 8mo agoAlways was, you're just no longer in the in-group (which used to be slightly less partisan-motivated but equally racially and class motivated)
- markhahn 8mo agoneither democracy nor being a market economy implies the American state of litigiousness. it's always interesting to hear the silent part out loud. in this case, he's saying "I can get what I want because I can game the courts".
- ToucanLoucan 8mo agoThe rich are increasingly uninterested in keeping up appearances. And really, why should they? We've learned now that there was actually a worldwide network of child rapists purchasing girls from other wealthy child traffickers in positions of power in seemingly every Western nation, and the consensus thus far is to do exactly nothing about it. Laws are for the poors.
- toss1 8mo agoMoments later (~1:13) he also said "we aren't forcing Flock on anyone" False, he is forcing Flock on EVERYONE No one has permitted themselves to be surveilled. And no, under the radar agreements with local cops and govts do NOT constitute my permission to be surveilled. If they want to go in with fully informed referendums in each community, then I'd accept it. But that is not Flock's business model.
- try_the_bass 8mo ago> False, he is forcing Flock on EVERYONE > No one has permitted themselves to be surveilled As much as I dislike Flock, this is bad logic. There's no such thing as opting out of surveillance in public spaces. Public spaces are defined by being public, in that everyone (even governments/corporations!) is free to observe everyone else in that same setting. So in reality, everyone has permitted themselves to be surveilled, purely through the act of being in public. This idea that there's some kind of difference between me watching you in public and Flock watching you in public is, quite frankly, bogus.
- gowld 8mo agoFlock is not a natural person. Flock has no rights.
- try_the_bass 8mo agoCompanies have plenty of rights in the US.
- TacticalCoder 8mo agoAs the owner of a moral person (a company), I disagree. There are even weirder stuff than companies being considered a "moral person". For example if a person speeds way too much in France (say more than 50 kilometers/hour above the speed limit on the highway, e.g. 180 km/h // 111 mph instead of the 130 km/h // 80 mph)... Well then that person gets arrested. And his driving license is confiscated on the spot. But here's the absolute crazy thing: even if the car belong to someone else, to a company, to a rental company... Doesn't matter: the French state consider that the car itself was complicit in the act. So the car is seized too (for 8 days if it doesn't belong to the person who was driving it and potentially much more if it does belong to the person driving it). Companies are persons and cars (I'm not even talking about self-driving cars) have rights and obligations. That's the world we live in.
- joriJordan 8mo agoGreat. Less runway for hires and product development. The rich aren't the only ones who can "flood the field". File all the lawsuits, Flock. Let's get some discovery going. Who is the CEO cozied up with?
- yoyohello13 8mo agoWe still live in a 'Might makes right' society. The only thing that has changed since Medieval times is 'Might' means 'Money'.
- margalabargala 8mo agoTo be fair this is at least an improvement over Medieval times when 'Might' meant 'ancestry'.
- plastic-enjoyer 8mo agoHow is this different to being born into wealth?
- margalabargala 8mo agoIn the 1300s you could be broke but if you had the blue blood you still had power. People today can become wealthy, and wealthy people can lose wealth, much much easily than nobility was created or revoked under feudalism. There's objectively more social mobility. That's an improvement. Don't confuse "it's an improvement" with "it's an acceptable and desirable end state".
- keybored 8mo agoI don’t know. For some reason when I think of social mobillity I think of Genghis Khan.
- margalabargala 8mo agoExactly. He's notable because he was so unusual. How many people in the US have been born into a lower to middle class family, and gone on to make more than $10 million in the last 30 years?
- ted_dunning 8mo ago
- mullingitover 8mo ago> "Thankfully, we live in a beautifully democratic and capitalistic society where we can fight in court." Probably not great for investor relations for him to be hyping up the democracy angle. They get a big chunk of their funding from Andreesen Horowitz.
- NuclearPM 8mo agoThank you for pointing this out. Capitalism is great… when it has limits. Why they supported the fascist: https://a16z.com/podcast/trump-is-about-to-change-everything-for-tech-startups/ https://a16z.com/podcast/trump-is-about-to-change-everything...
- uywykjdskn 8mo ago[dead]
- direwolf20 8mo agoHe knows what he's doing. He doesn't support democracy, just plays it on TV.
- greenavocado 8mo ago"Thankfully, we live in a beautifully democratic and capitalistic society where we can fight in court [(...) where we can bankrupt the opposition even if we can't win the case.]"
- bccdee 8mo agoIt's pretty funny—the only think Deflock does is map out the locations of Flock cameras. When Flock decides to track people's activities, they're "following the law" and "open to reasonable debate," but when people decide they want to track Flock's activities right back, that makes them terrorists.
- notyourwork 8mo agoDo as I say, not as I do. It’s a standard operating model for hypocrites.
- JKCalhoun 8mo agoI identified three in my neighborhood—added them to the map. Watch out, I'm a mad man! ;-)
- pclmulqdq 8mo agoHas anyone filed a CCPA-related lawsuit against Flock for retention and sharing of this data? How about a civil action for stalking? I assume it will just take one creative individual to find the right tort and then Flock will be buried under lawsuits. Too many people are focused on the criminal aspects of this (4th amendment) and government surveillance. The fact that this is a corporation may give you more options.
- expedition32 8mo agoYeah the whole "justice is blind" turns out to be propaganda that allows the poors to cope.
- platevoltage 8mo agoOne would wonder what capitalism has to do with having a court system.