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1. jariel+(OP)[view] [source] 2020-06-22 21:26:08
I don't believe it's an 'American' thing so much as what exists without community/communitarian cultural values embedded in society.

50% of the rules for our socialisation are encoded in the 'ether' which is to say the rituals, norms, policies, procedures of what is considered 'normative' in any region, organisation, community. In most 'old world' countries you see these rules as thick as sauce everywhere, and of course they can be suffocating and often a roadblock to progress. But usually they provide the foundations for good social behaviour as well.

The Scandinavian countries are like this - visiting those places it feels a little bit like a nation-sized cult, where everyone is obeying an invisible set of rules. But it would appear differently to them obviously, if their instinct is to closely match their peers behaviour and adhere to whatever norms are there. The Swedish press, in particular, doesn't feel like a 'free press' as we would have it, but rather a loose set of groups acting in an ordained fashion for the 'good of society'. They act like a collective version of the BBC or CBC - the official mandate is not there ... but the cultural mandate is just the same. From the outside, it looks like a lack of 'freedom of the press' and maybe paternalistic, but they would see it differently of course.

In the 'new world', absent those implied rules, and possibly with the support of neoliberal ideals, and also the notion that 'everyone is doing it' - it's just easy to think in more narrow, self-oriented terms, and so you get these kinds of attitudes.

I do however believe that most researchers are a fairly pro-social, moral bunch, and I also believe that most police are as well and their intentions are mostly good and so I'm doubtful of existential concern here, other than to say ... we need to 'keep an eye on it' and think about issues thoughtfully. I'm more concerned about unecessary surveillance, lack of judicial oversight and process, than any kind of algorithm.

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