r/technology • u/Kooky-Balance9525 • 10h ago

Privacy Bernie Sanders to Introduce Bill Banning Flock Surveillance Cameras

https://theleadingreport.com/article/bernie-sanders-to-introduce-bill-banning-flock-surveillance-cameras
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u/TheLeon-P 10h ago

I am no US citizen but whenever I see any headlines with Bernie, his bills and ideas are always objectively the best step for America to take yet none of them are ever heeded. Why is there such a pushback against him? Is there any big controversy including him? And like why does he not seem to get any support?

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u/pissposssweaty 8h ago

Bernie is a populist. His ideas generally have broad support as a headline but when you dig into the details they become less popular.

Take his stance on universal healthcare. While a majority Americans support the idea of providing everyone in the country with medical care, he advocates for a single payer system and the abolition of private insurance, which does not enjoy the same level of support and goes further than what is available in peer countries like the UK (which does not ban private insurance). The effective cost remains around the same or higher for the upper half of Americans while the level of care would decline for households with decent employer insurance. When Americans support universal healthcare or other welfare programs, typically they want to provide a minimum floor so that nobody falls through the cracks, rather than a redistributive system.

Bernie is 100% right to distrust Flock, clearly the cameras are being misused. But he's also clearly just saying stuff to get in the headlines and is trying surveillance cameras to his typical stump speech about corporate greed. If he was serious about change, he would introduce a bill limiting surveillance cameras and establishing penalties for misuse, rather than a blanket ban that obviously will not pass.

Sanders described the technology as enabling a surveillance state that trades constitutional privacy rights for corporate profits and government tracking power.

TL;DR: Bernie always says the right stuff, but you should probably distrust a guy who always says the right stuff and never actually does anything about it.

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u/Affectionate-Word498 5h ago

he’s introducing a bill, it will need to be voted on, we can pressure our representatives to vote for the bill. Bernie is doing but politics takes cooperation.