this post was submitted on 12 Aug 2026
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A Boring Dystopia
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This isn't a capitalism problem. It's an authoritarianism problem. The only thing about this that relates to capitalism is that it's a private company setting up the cameras instead of the state doing it.
Capitalism is about gaining all power (capital). Its end goal is complete surveillance. 2+2 = 4
Capitalism is pretty inherently authoritarian. The boss calls the shots.
That's a gross over simplification that ignores the influence of the insurance industry shifting the baseline of public surveillance and crony capitalism that infects our municipalities.
Capitalists have been trying to build the panopticon since the first factories.
Yes, that's how it's implemented under capitalism.
States further into their authoritarianism don't need to bother with middle men and cutouts and shit.
They just put up the cameras.
"Decentralize the mass surveillance!" cries the anarcho-libertarian. "Big Government is monopolizing all the cameras! We should let the market decide who gets spied on!"
This is absolutely a capitalism problem. It's what happens when you let corporations do whatever without consequences as long as they can afford the bribes and in turn get contacts on taxpayer money.
True, but I could also see an authoritarian "communist" government doing all the same surveillance bullshit.
So, while it's a capitalism problem this time, I don't think it's a capitalism-exclusive problem. It really is, at its root, an authoritarianism problem. This time, you've got capitalist authoritarianism, but next time maybe a different flavor.
China already has this sort of system completely built out.
I'll tell you more, the UK is one of the leading countries in cameras per capita, either installed or accessible by the authorities (not sure about exact details). They built government surveillance without any communism in sight.
(Leaving alone that China's state capitalism is the opposite of communism.)
In 2023, China had over 700 million cameras tracking the population.
That's one camera for every two citizens.
But yes the UK is also building a surveillance state.
But is the technology developed by the state or are they contracting it out to a private company?
How does that matter?
Both are fucking horrible.
But also, China does both. In 2023 they had over 700 million cameras tracking people.
State: communist.
Private: capitalist.
End result: authoritarianism.
You can't get rid of authoritarianism the same way you can't get rid of stupid. Some portion of the population will always be the bottom of the bell curve.
What you can do, however, is redirect it into something positive. For example, Japanese social structures are pretty fuckin' authoritarian. Most people wouldn't even dream of littering.
True, but you can get rid of hierarchical authority itself, leaving the authoritarians nothing to work with. Ask your local anarchist how.
Authoritarianism means very little, it's such a broad term that doesn't localise the origin of repression. Instead of considering the root of the problem here, which is capitalism/private property, you look at a feature or a phenomenon.
So every capitalist country is authoritarian?
Yes, necessarily so if we were to take the epithet that is "authoritarianism" seriously. We just don't talk about what women in marriage have to put up with (the old adage of not biting the hand that feeds one), how we treat children and how accepted it is to subject people to dismal working conditions. It's considered normal, this is the status quo. You need to enforce property laws with deadly force, suppress movements and the organic formation of opinions and views, in order to for the system to keep functioning as it has.
Meh, there's some smart people that have come up with a pretty clear understanding of authoritarianism.
https://theauthoritarians.org/
But your conclusion is also partly correct, the authoritarian personality is not inherently bad, they must first be weaponized.
I didn't say anything about the authoritarian personality and I don't really care that some people have figured out something they view as being integral to comprehending society. Honestly, I find life under the systems people like Fromm consider least authoritarian, think Sweden in the 70s, to still be be very brutal towards the masses.
But you know what, I believe your conclusion is also party correct. People with an "authoritarian" streak can be used to guard a worker's movement.
Kill the authoritarians. Only way.
That's how they get away with it too. Worst constitutional loophole ever.