<story><title>Clearview AI being used to identify Capitol rioters</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/09/us/trump-biden#facial-recognition-clearview-capitol</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fpgaminer</author><text>Comparing cancel culture to China&amp;#x27;s social credit system is ... not a great choice, in my opinion.&lt;p&gt;Regardless, I&amp;#x27;ve had this theory about cancel culture.  I don&amp;#x27;t necessarily agree with cancel culture, for the aforementioned problem of it being mob social justice.  But it seems to me like it has arisen out of a failure by the real justice system.  Issues like sexism in particular, which affect half of the population, have been ignored and marginalized.  It took how long for Bill Cosby&amp;#x27;s heinous crimes to finally be prosecuted?  More over, how likely would it have been for his crimes to yet again have been swept under the rug had cancel culture not fostered an environment where the victims felt comfortable coming forward?&lt;p&gt;The very topic we&amp;#x27;re discussing, the terrorist attack on our Capitol, is another example of racist failures of our police force.&lt;p&gt;So is it really any surprise that society has collectively taken matters into their owns hands?&lt;p&gt;Again, I don&amp;#x27;t _agree_ with the idea that society at large should pass their own judgements.  I&amp;#x27;d rather the courts do that.  But they haven&amp;#x27;t been.  And aren&amp;#x27;t.  And we just suffered through one of the worst years on record of blatant police abuse and court inaction.&lt;p&gt;If we want to get rid of cancel culture I think we need to fix our policing and justice system to the extent that society feels they don&amp;#x27;t need to take up the mantel of justice themselves.&lt;p&gt;In other words, I don&amp;#x27;t see value in deriding cancel culture.  If one feels that cancel culture is wrong, my belief is that one should be calling for action to repair the _cause_ of cancel culture, not the symptoms.  And that cause is a prejudiced justice system.</text></item><item><author>mmmBacon</author><text>I think we already have a system in the West where people are afraid to speak openly; it’s referred to as cancel culture but exists elsewhere.  The difference is that it’s not a formal government system but more of a mob social justice system.</text></item><item><author>ondrek</author><text>It seems that face recognition could be as dangerous as country laws are. China&amp;#x27;s social credit system is a strong mirror to its government. The Black Mirror scenario with all those people scared to even talk publicly could (if once real) be strongly country specific, if we get to the point, where life drastically depend on ethics of technology laws.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>inglor_cz</author><text>&amp;quot;So is it really any surprise that society has collectively taken matters into their owns hands?&amp;quot;&lt;p&gt;It is not the society. The virtual mobs that hunt people online, even though looking massive (1:N is scary even for N==100), are absolutely tiny when compared to the society as a whole.&lt;p&gt;And as for the reasons, every mob in history, including the ones that did absolutely horrible things (such as pogroms), had some reasoning as to why their activity is virtuous and noble. And putative inefficiency or corruption of the legal system was one of them. Check up on history of lynching - that was done because the legal system was perceived to be &amp;quot;soft&amp;quot;.</text></comment>
<story><title>Clearview AI being used to identify Capitol rioters</title><url>https://www.nytimes.com/live/2021/01/09/us/trump-biden#facial-recognition-clearview-capitol</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>fpgaminer</author><text>Comparing cancel culture to China&amp;#x27;s social credit system is ... not a great choice, in my opinion.&lt;p&gt;Regardless, I&amp;#x27;ve had this theory about cancel culture.  I don&amp;#x27;t necessarily agree with cancel culture, for the aforementioned problem of it being mob social justice.  But it seems to me like it has arisen out of a failure by the real justice system.  Issues like sexism in particular, which affect half of the population, have been ignored and marginalized.  It took how long for Bill Cosby&amp;#x27;s heinous crimes to finally be prosecuted?  More over, how likely would it have been for his crimes to yet again have been swept under the rug had cancel culture not fostered an environment where the victims felt comfortable coming forward?&lt;p&gt;The very topic we&amp;#x27;re discussing, the terrorist attack on our Capitol, is another example of racist failures of our police force.&lt;p&gt;So is it really any surprise that society has collectively taken matters into their owns hands?&lt;p&gt;Again, I don&amp;#x27;t _agree_ with the idea that society at large should pass their own judgements.  I&amp;#x27;d rather the courts do that.  But they haven&amp;#x27;t been.  And aren&amp;#x27;t.  And we just suffered through one of the worst years on record of blatant police abuse and court inaction.&lt;p&gt;If we want to get rid of cancel culture I think we need to fix our policing and justice system to the extent that society feels they don&amp;#x27;t need to take up the mantel of justice themselves.&lt;p&gt;In other words, I don&amp;#x27;t see value in deriding cancel culture.  If one feels that cancel culture is wrong, my belief is that one should be calling for action to repair the _cause_ of cancel culture, not the symptoms.  And that cause is a prejudiced justice system.</text></item><item><author>mmmBacon</author><text>I think we already have a system in the West where people are afraid to speak openly; it’s referred to as cancel culture but exists elsewhere.  The difference is that it’s not a formal government system but more of a mob social justice system.</text></item><item><author>ondrek</author><text>It seems that face recognition could be as dangerous as country laws are. China&amp;#x27;s social credit system is a strong mirror to its government. The Black Mirror scenario with all those people scared to even talk publicly could (if once real) be strongly country specific, if we get to the point, where life drastically depend on ethics of technology laws.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Nuzzerino</author><text>&amp;gt; Regardless, I&amp;#x27;ve had this theory about cancel culture. I don&amp;#x27;t necessarily agree with cancel culture, for the aforementioned problem of it being mob social justice. But it seems to me like it has arisen out of a failure by the real justice system.&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; In other words, I don&amp;#x27;t see value in deriding cancel culture.&lt;p&gt;This is apologism, and starting such an argument with &amp;quot;I don&amp;#x27;t agree with this but...&amp;quot; is just a way to trick a few more people into taking your ideas seriously enough to read to the end of the paragraph.&lt;p&gt;And terrorists, really? You could use your same EXACT logic, in fact even more justifiably, as a defense for what happened at the U.S. Capital.</text></comment>