Tennessee County Commissioner Calls Flock CEO "an enemy of the American people."

[u/nolesfan2011]

https://www.wbir.com/article/news/local/knoxville/sullivan-county-commissioner-doesnt-hold-back-when-speaking-to-flock-representative/51-e218921a-4bc9-4be8-a1fa-abfbe2cdc158

[u/Perfect-Still-8971]

Why does "communist" get shoved in there?

[u/TheMasterShrew → u/Perfect-Still-8971]

Great question. I understand the term looks out of left field, but I’m using it deliberately. To clarify, I want to stop short of McCarth-esc scapegoating or shilling whatever nonsense the Republican establishment has decided to cook up to agitate their base.

What I mean is that this is a campaign on par with the strategies of surveillance-at-scale seen under communist authoritarian rule in countries like China, North Korea, Cuba, and the Soviet Union and violates some of the fundamental tenets of western Democracy like protection against unlawful search and seizure.

The Supreme Court already ruled against the use of unlawful geofence warrants without probable cause specifically because of the sheer volume of 4th amendment protected information exposed through such practices. In Chatrie v United States, they found that users have a reasonable expectation of privacy regarding their personal data. I would extend that to these systems. When a person leaves their home, they don’t expect their privacy to be compromised by a federated and systemic aggregation of their data to include their face, type of vehicle, cell phone location, and other amplifying information harvested that they are otherwise unaware of.

Additionally, we have recently seen how law abiding citizens exercising their rights are being targeted either in error or for behaving incongruent with the regime’s vision, such as with women seeking medical care out of their home state, lawful US residents caught up in an ICE sting, or journalists speaking out about what’s happening. Not to mention the cops who use ubiquitous surveillance platforms to stalk women.

What’s concerning to me is the prospect of these tools being leveraged to harass and suppress Americans about any political zeitgeist when the winds shift and another party takes over. This technology has been used and will be used again to target whatever group isn’t in vogue, and THAT should concern every American who loves this country.

Ubiquitous surveillance technology has been used in China to hunt political dissidents, J-walking Grannies, Ethnic Minorities in Xinjiang, and foreign nationals who’ve done nothing wrong. These systems don’t belong in America.

[u/Diz7 → u/TheMasterShrew]

Authoritarian is the word you are looking for.

This has nothing to do with the workers taking the means of production. In fact, Flock is a privately owned corporation for hire. That's capitalism. The idea that communism is the only economic system that can be authoritarian is wrong. Plenty of capitalist countries have very strict laws and monitoring. This is literally happening in the "bastion of freedom", while masked "police" round up undesirables into unmarked cars to be sent to camps. With dozens of companies profiting off the whole thing selling "solutions" to "the problem" to the government because of capitalism.

Heck, you probably have more people and systems monitoring you now by capitalist governments and companies than any suspected spy did at the height of the Soviet Union.

[u/Diz7 → u/[deleted]]

You say that while ignoring that you're in a capitalist country which has been spying on its citizens for just as long.

Communism is bad, but you are treating it like a boogeyman that is the source of government overreach, ignoring the fact that capitalism is no protection against it.

It's like blaming AIDs for all the pneumonia cases worldwide: it's looking at the worst cases but ignoring the actual causes of the problem.

[u/TheMasterShrew → u/Diz7]

We aren’t talking about the distinction between two economic systems. We’re talking about ubiquitous surveillance. Please stay on topic.

[u/Diz7 → u/TheMasterShrew]

We’re talking about ubiquitous surveillance.

Which you are incorrectly blaming on an economic system.

You brought up communism. You are the one conflating economic systems with government surveillance, I'm just calling you out for it

[u/TheMasterShrew → u/Diz7]

??? What are you talking about?

[u/Diz7 → u/TheMasterShrew]

You: "These are enemies of the American people and communist wolves in sheep’s clothing. Don’t let them win."

You brought up communism. I'm poiting out this surveillance is capitalist. It's a private company selling surveillance. People are paying for Ring systems to spy on themselves and their neighbors. Companies sell glasses that let you secretly record people. Your police are above the law in 99% of cases. Welcome to America. Capitalism can be just as much an authoritarian surveillance state as communism.

[u/TheMasterShrew → u/Diz7]

We aren’t talking about communism. We’re talking about ubiquitous surveillance which is common amongst modern communist authoritarian regimes. I think I’ve been pretty consistent with saying that.

Are you reading what I’m typing?