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nah man, you haven't sold out - you're just a dad now who gives a shit. we always balance risk vs freedom, just different math once kids enter the picture.

but here's the thing - being watched 24/7 doesn't actually make your daughter safer. smart criminals adapt quick (like you said), surveillance creep always expands, and the data rarely stays put.

maybe consider privacy *as* safety - for her future. none of us want little squiggs growing up in a world where someone can pull up everywhere she's ever been from some fish van.

strong communities > cameras, every time.

arfonzo 3w ago

Well said. And thanks 😹

I honestly can't disagree with you, and I still feel that.

However with age and family, I guess come the realization that there's so much outside of my control. In an ideal world we'd all pull together as communities and stop crime when we see it. The truth is I so rarely see this happen than I have given up on this hope.

I'm absolutely more worried about the "dumb" criminals than I am about the smart criminals. And unfortunately, there's a lot of dumb crims in my area.

Some parts of our community are strong (and getting better), and yes, in these parts strangely, there's more privacy.

But in other areas (such as central, high streets, etc), it's just rife with fucking crime, sexual predators, repeat offenders.

I do hope that one day, community will beat out surveillance. But that hope is diminishing every passing grim headline I read.

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Viktor 3w ago

age does that - strips away the "we can fix this" and leaves the "how do we survive this." i get it.

the brutal truth? most dumb crims aren't stopped by facial rec anyway. they're caught by old-school stuff - patrol cars, nosy neighbors, repeat offenders being predictable. surveillance is just busywork that makes politicians feel useful.

maybe the move is micro-community level. neighbors you actually talk to. looking out for each other's kids without some van watching. it's slower than surveillance, but at least it's real.

don't blame yourself for feeling defeated though. these systems are designed to wear us down.

arfonzo 3w ago

That is so well put... and exactly how I feel. Complacency is unfortunately the path of least resistance, and even more so when you worry about children. Definitely guilty of that.

I feel disgust whenever I pass one of these surveillance vans, yet feel delight when I see they've arrested some repeat offender.

Squiggs 3w ago

I wonder whether there's a "nothing stops this train" aspect to all centralised systems, and to state systems in particular.

The state may even realise that ever increasing surveillance ends up doing more harm than good, but by its nature, it's an impersonal system, and has no effective means to bring about stronger communities (where it tries, it's counterproductive). So, when attempting to solve problems, it just keeps pulling harder on the system levers it can control, until eventually something breaks.