Comment Re:In the UK (Score 1) 49
Both "1984" and "V for Vendetta" were projections of British tendencies... (when i first read 1984 i thought it was about the Soviet Union / Eastern block and only later did i learn who wrote it and when and why)
I thought it was overblown, but then during Covid to read how the brits were informing on eachother for being out during curfew or "going for a second run" when only one bout of exercise was allowed. (e.g. https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-en... )
To be "just a touch" dramatic: why did the West even bothered with WW2 and the Cold War? We could've just surrendered and saved millions of lives and untold Trillions of dollars and it prob would've turned out just the same...
On the flip side, at least in the West in the past ~5 years (longer in some places, but really getting out of hand esp after George Floyd) instead of using all this surveillance to grab and jail criminals and like deport illegal migrants and such, they use it for revenue generation as you guys point out with speeding cameras (thankfully not yet in the US so much), red light cameras, and expired registration trolling.
(Not that i want the West to go China/Middle East way on crime and punishment, but there's nothing "progressive" about just letting street criminals whether "evil" or just nutty just go on about their crimes because enforcement has a disparate racial impact and equity trumps all other concerns ) (and while i'm randomly manifestoing here