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0 pointsonion2k1mo ago0 comments

Some people think it'd be reasonable to have every car reporting it's GPS position and speed to the government to stop people speeding, or to have facial recognition cameras on ever corner to catch criminals, or to make everyone carry an ID card that people can demand to see.

On the face of it living in a police state is safe, and secure, and actually increases your freedom to just live your life without pain. And if these systems were never abused that might be true. But sadly, the reality is that every time these things are implemented they end up being used against the citizens. So they're always a terrible idea.

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4 comments · 2 top-level

weezing1mo ago· 2 in thread

I guess some people living in countries with high crime rates are just tired of it, therefore they are just looking for any solution. In safer countries where you don't have potential criminals on every corner the perspective is different. I wouldn't want 24/7 surveillance in Poland or Czechia but I would consider them being lesser evil in big US or UK cities.

graemep1mo ago

Which UK cities have high crime rates? The murder rate in the UK is much lower than in the US and slightly higher than in Poland, been trending down for a long time and pretty typical for a developed country.

amanaplanacanal1mo ago

Which points to another issue: people's perception of how much crime exists probably correlates more with how much media they consume than what the real crime rates are.

ropable28d ago

Nice straw man! Be a shame if it was a logical fallacy.

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