governments ruling by fear always seem to think the realization that “no one is safe from this bullshit” is gonna lead to “wow I’d better be extra extra careful to obey everything”
right up until it actually leads to “damn, looks like being safe from this bullshit isn’t an option, no matter how much you obey. guess I’ve got nothing to lose then”
when I saw that long post about how impossible it supposedly is to get away with shoplifting these days because of how advanced the camera surveillance is, and how they’ll keep the data and share it with the other corporations even after you think you got away with it, etc, etc… this whole concept felt very clear in my head
because yeah, sure… I have no doubt that the surveillance, data analysis, facial recognition and everything, is now pretty damn effective at its goals of 1. noticing shoplifting, and 2. making sure someone is arrested every time it notices shoplifting
but I have absolutely zero confidence 1. that it won’t flag plenty of innocuous acts as shoplifting, or 2. that the person who gets arrested is gonna be the person who actually did it, any reasonable percentage of the time
which doesn’t say to me, “better be really obedient then”
it says “there’s a fair chance you’re gonna be punished no matter how obedient you are. so why bother?”