[Bodell]

Slightly off topic but I wanted to add a quick story to this.

In my neighborhood I made some waves with the HOA when I complained about secret hidden cameras I found at our pool. After investigating I found out rather quickly that members of the board decided to put them up with out telling anyone including most of the rest of the board, which my girlfriend was a member of at the time. When I complained I was told the same thing: you can’t make a complaint without offering a solution. I was told this two more times when we suggested that they should not be having big meeting and gatherings during the pandemic, and when we suggested they should not be illegally miscounting property owners votes (this one ended up involving us paying a lawyer to straighten out).

Every time I was told I was not being constructive and offering a solution and every time I had to explain that I was. The solutions were very simple do spy on your neighbors and take secret videos of them, in their bathing suits especially. Don’t invite people to large in person gatherings during a pandemic when an online meeting will do. And follow the already legally established way of counting peoples votes without creativity reimagining it in your own favor.

For all those solutions my girlfriend was removed from the board and we are no longer allowed to vote.

Stallman is offering a similar simple solution “do not use Apple products.” The parent comment here is simply mad that Stallman has not invented a way for people To have their cake and eat it too.

[grawprog]

>Every time I was told I was not being constructive and offering a solution and every time I had to explain that I was.

That's when I would have said. 'I'll be back in ten minutes with the solution.' Then returned with the smashed cameras in my hand and said. 'Problem solved.'

[Bodell]

I was so furious when I found the camera I confronted the president of the board that day on the street. He cooped to it in that conversation, said something about ‘our neighborhood is changing and we need to do something about it’, which was a referencing to a recent event involving a friend of a black family not being wanted at the pool. He was scared because he knew it was wrong, as cowards often are when confronted, and told me it would be removed, which it was, the same day. I mentioned it in the next meeting and was promptly called a liar, screamed at for 5 minutes and kicked out. The board made an official statement at the next meeting chastising my conduct and denying the entire incident.

Of course I still have the pictures of the camera, though I realized quickly I was the only one concerned with the surveillance, and rumor was I was the nefarious person that needed to be watched out for because ‘what does he have to hide then anyway?’

The board continues to hide cameras around the neighborhood whenever they see fit.

The real kicker to the whole thing was that at the same time I found out our Vice President, the one behind the whole shtick, was a disbarred ex DA, who is now an ex felon because he stole a gun out of an evidence locker gave it to his mistress and told her to kill his wife. What a world!

[grawprog]

Damn, it sounds like you guys need a new place to live. That's just fucked up, no other word for it.

[vimacs2]

Thanks for sharing your story and it was definitely relevant. I find that many people demanding solutions with complaints are not really looking for a solution, they just want you to shut up.

I see this a lot actually in politics as well. They think they are successfully browbeating you with their "hard truths" but what they're really showing is they lack imagination and the ability to evaluate their own position critically.