Surveillance by the state is only one component of surveillance. Connected to this is the fact that through surveillance culture, the state is trying to turn everyone into cops.
Neighborhood watch programs that funnel directly to police reporting, video doorbells like Ring (I’ve covered in the past my recommendation against all Ring and Amazon Echo products), posting video and images of protests on social media, cross-walk cameras, shot spotters, license plate readers, photos of people in the background in your selfie, and even closed circuit systems in shops, all of these become integrated into surveillance infrastructure.
In capitalist colonialism, tech is not for security, they are for surveillance.
A doorbell becomes a video doorbell that then becomes a connected reporting device. In a surveillance state, a doorbell is never just a doorbell. A phone is never just a phone; it is now a device that can record your pace and gait, know when you have your period, when you are pregnant, or your friend is pregnant, your sleeping patterns, what your children are doing, your biometrics, typing speed, habits, location, who your friends and family are, driving habits, voice, can predict your behavior, and much more. A watch no longer just gives you information, it now takes it too. A health monitor becomes a detailed digital identification of your unique self. An app you thought was just for fun can be used to measure your logic skills and IQ. They all become part of the surveillance network.
The pitch from oppressors is always that cameras and tech are preventative. In fact, Oracle’s billionaire founder Larry Ellison said at a company financial meeting last year about AI automation, “Citizens will be on their best behavior because we are constantly recording and reporting everything that’s going on.” We shouldn’t be on our best behavior because we are being watched. We should be on our best behavior if we want to be on our best behavior.
Surveillance forces compliance, it does not create good behavior. Surveillance is control. The apocalyptic and inevitable conclusion to this is what we have already been witnessing in Palestine, through the construction of Cop Cities, facial recognition checkpoints, and the way the entire prison system functions.
All at once, surveillance is an attempt to turn everything and everyone into criminals and cops.
Whenever you witness or encounter surveillance if and when you can, question it, push back, opt out, resist, and object.
Stop the state from weaponizing our trust. Abolish surveillance.
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