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PaperclipPerfector  1mo ago (text post)   3785 thread views

Small-Scale Question Sunday for July 19, 2026

Do you have a dumb question that you're kind of embarrassed to ask in the main thread? Is there something you're just not sure about?

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Is there anything I as an individual can do to push back against Flock cameras or broader mass surveillance in the US?

Reading 1984 as a sixth grader I was horrified by Big Brother and the authoritarianism illustrated in the book and always felt that if those things came to life it would be right and imperative to fight against them, and every year I’ve seen more and more authoritarian overreach that disturbs me.

I do not vote as I believe it’s a massive waste of time at best. I am not fond of solutions such as “call your congressperson” or “show up to your local council and demand change” because these are similarly time wasting activities in my opinion.

I am frustrated by the acceptance of the public for these technologies with terrible implications for the present and the future. I don’t want to break the law in order to fight them and don’t want to become more of a target, which seems inevitable if you want to speak against it publicly. I feel very disappointed in people around me and the modern west when I realize the state of mass surveillance today.

Is there anything I as an individual can do to push back against Flock cameras or broader mass surveillance in the US?

The most effective thing you could do is advocate for massive increases in human policing. A cop on every corner, with DA's willing to charge all plausible cases, and judges willing to seriously hold people accountable, even juveniles and minorities. Reopen the asylums and confine the mentally ill who serially refuse to take their meds.

Flock cameras are tolerated or even desired almost entirely due to the (often accurate) perception that too much crime goes unpunished. Once we're all living in a low-crime high-trust society again, people will be much less willing to trade their public anonymity for security.

That's by design. High-trust society does not need overlords. Low-trust society does, because it's the only hope peaceful people have against random violence and petty warlords. It all works towards the same goal.

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