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by pixl97 3 days ago
>Does the average person think this?

The average person hold all kinds of conflicting views.

The average middle class parent will surveil the shit out of their children, for example.

Hence the title of the article is not completely correct. The outcome of surveillance is the intent of the entity surveilling. In the case of the parent, this is likely the safety of their offspring. In the case of a state entity, it's likely the safety of the people in power of the state. This second type of safety is very dangerous and does not include your safety.

2 comments

I think you are onto something with intent here. By now, we effectively know that various power centers are getting away with things that normal people do not. If true, the concern is not that we are getting away with things, but that we might be thinking that maybe current arrangement is no longer suitable. In other words, they are literally preparing for a worst case scenario. And to me, this seems silly now. As in, I buy the fear of a peasant uprising and being on the wrong side of the scythe, but I sincerely doubt peasants will actually do anything.
> The average middle class parent will surveil the shit out of their children, for example.

Most of those parents will argue that they have the right to do that and are actively recommending other parents to do the same. It happens so much that a local celebrity actually said the following recently (paraphrased)"As long as you live in my house I(the parent) have the right to go through your room, your stuff and your phone whenever I want".

In my country this is actually illegal as kids have a right to privacy just like the parents, though it happens so much since kids don't have the resources to sue their parents therefore people think this is normal (and kids grow up thinking it is normal).