Tuesday, October 25: Destroy the Surveillance State
Answering the age old question, how much is too much?
How many security cameras are there on your street? During a quick walk home yesterday, I encountered at least 10 surveillance devices tracking my behavior and location (naturally I flipped them all the bird). In an urban environment this has become expected, people really want to protect their property and they don’t trust their neighbors. But where do we draw the line as subjects of surveillance?
Arguing that a piece of surveillance technology is okay as long as you or other people like you use it for good reasons is not only a slippery slope, but also preempts any discussion around corporate surveillance and its outcomes. Technologies have never been neutral tools: they’re intentionally designed, often to be used even at great cost to the user by obscuring the harms or packaging them up with “good reasons” that seem undeniable.
But surveillance tech like Ring Cameras are getting innocent people killed. Companies like Amazon have transformed what was once a labor cost (supervising work and asset protection) into a revenue stream by selling surveillance technology like doorbell cameras. There’s little reason why any of us should support Amazon’s campaign to spin corporate surveillance into the highest form of consumer convenience.
Side Items
RIP Leslie Jordan: The beloved actor saw a resurgence in his popularity during the pandemic, when he took advantage of quarantine to share stories on social media. He was undoubtedly a gifted actor and storyteller and by many accounts an even better human being; sweet, caring, and a top-notch cheerleader
Another School Shooting: Yesterday in St. Louis another American school was transformed from a quiet place of learning to a scene of terror, panic and violence, as a former student killed two people and injured several more. The gunman allegedly was carrying a dozen 30-round high capacity magazines with him, so this tragedy certainly could’ve ended in much more bloodshed
The New Kanye: The formerly talented artist turned antisemitic provocateur has been dropped by his talent agency, had his partnership deal with Adidas canceled, and had a completed documentary on his life and career scrapped. And yet all of these consequences hardly seem to register with a man prepared to blame his downfall on conspiratorial and racist tropes. Hard to believe this is the same man who called out George Bush for not caring about Black people