[ExI] The Surveillance State Is Making a List, and You’re On It

[efc at disroot.org]

On Mon, 9 Dec 2024, Adrian Tymes via extropy-chat wrote:

> This article makes a classic error: just because it is possible to do this to one individual at some cost, it assumes the government
> is doing this to everyone.  This assumption ignores the massive cost to do this to literally everyone in the United States of
> America, let alone the rest of the world.  Even the government sometimes does cost/benefit analyses and declines to implement stuff
> that's massively costly for not enough benefit to it; tracking everyone all of the time is one such thing.

Au contrare, with governments, we know that _if_ there is a chance that 
something will be abused, or used to gain more power, it will be done. 
Therefore the mere possibility is enough to argue that the capability 
should be shut down and destroyed.

When it comes to freedom, there can be no middle ground or compromise of 
principles, that road slowly, but surely, leads to the death of freedom 
and the start of authoritarianism.

The road down this path of course has already started, but I am an 
eternal, long term, optimist, so I'll continue the good fight. =)

Best regards,
Daniel


> On Mon, Dec 9, 2024 at 9:28 AM BillK via extropy-chat <extropy-chat at lists.extropy.org> wrote:
>       “He sees you when you’re sleeping
>       He knows when you’re awake
>       He knows when you’ve been bad or good
>       So be good for goodness’ sake!”
>       —“Santa Claus Is Coming to Town”
>
>       You’d better watch out—you’d better not pout—you’d better not cry—‘cos
>       I’m telling you why: this Christmas, it’s the Surveillance State
>       that’s making a list and checking it twice, and it won’t matter
>       whether you’ve been bad or good.
>
>       You’ll be on this list whether you like it or not.
>
>       <https://www.rutherford.org/publications_resources/john_whiteheads_commentary/surveillance_state_is_making_a_list_and_youre_on_it>
>       Quote:
>       Now the government wants us to believe that we have nothing to fear
>       from these mass spying programs as long as we’ve done nothing wrong.
>
>       Don’t believe it.
>       The government’s definition of a “bad” guy is extraordinarily broad,
>       and it results in the warrantless surveillance of innocent,
>       law-abiding Americans on a staggering scale.
>       ---------------------
>
>       This reminds me of the saying from Stalinist era Soviet Union
>       (attributions vary) -
>       "Give me the man and I will give you the case against him".
>
>       BillK
>
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> 
> 
>