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Councils Recruit Unpaid Volunteers To Spy On Their Neighbors
Several readers have written to tell us that a recent move in the UK has councils relying on info from "Citizen Snoopers" to report the transgressions of their neighbors. Currently only implemented as "environment volunteers" designed to keep watch on things like litter, dog habits, and improper trash sorting, there is a certain amount of trepidation that this could grow into something more sinister. "It will fuel fears that Britain is lurching towards a Big Brother society, following the revelation this week that the Home Office is extending some police powers to council staff and private security guards. Critics said the latest scheme could easily be abused and encourage a culture of bin spies and curtain twitchers. Matthew Elliott, of the Taxpayers' Alliance, said: 'Snooping on your neighbors to report recycling infringements sounds like something straight out of the East German Stasi's copybook.'"
I live in a part of France that has been occupied by the britshit for the last quarter-millenium, so we have had plenty of time to observe them from without.
In comparison to the french, the brits are hypocrites (we will waste no time driving home what we think about you); they will say nothing at all to your face, or perhaps a "good morning" (sometimes supplemented by "isn't the weather wonderful today", even though there is a light drizzle), and then will gladly stab you in the back when you last expect it.
Their idea of a "community" is more tribal than anything else; they will form homogenous social groups that will exist in total, blissfull ignorance of other local social groups; such an attitude naturally fosters misundestanding of the other groups. The hypocritical mentality also means that people will covertly act against perceived greivances, by all means possible. You don't like the neighbour's face, choice of music or colour of motor-car? Goody! He brings his garbage too early, here is a way of getting back at him!
The limeys are hypocrites and they know it; hence their false veeneer of respectability and decorum (those who are called YOBS are in reality people who recognize the hypocrisy and are refusing to go with that oxdung, and let their true sentiments be expressed in the open -- believe me, beneath every stiff upper-lip is a contained YOB that would gladly jump at your throat at the earliest convenience), that perfectly explains the "curtain twitcher" busybody mentality. As such, such a development is certainly not a surprise, the surprise being that it has taken so much time to materialize.
You're a moron if you think libertarians support any of this thing, shit-for-brains.
"You can say what the fuck you like. I'm clearly not trying to 'supress discussion' - you might (just about) have a case if I had (say) modded you down."
Read carefully. I didn't say you were suppressing discussion, I said you were using the same technique. Try to make something look less bad by attacking the use of language and bringing up something worse.
"Simply: Broken=Does not work at all."
Broken -
"# physically and forcibly separated into pieces or cracked or split; "a broken mirror"; "a broken tooth"; "a broken leg"; "his neck is broken"
# not continuous in space, time, or sequence or varying abruptly; "broken lines of defense"; "a broken cable transmission"; "broken sleep"; "tear off the stub above the broken line"; "a broken note"; "broken sobs"
# subdued or brought low in condition or status; "brought low"; "a broken man"; "his broken spirit"
# (especially of promises or contracts) having been violated or disregarded; "broken (or unkept) promises"; "broken contracts"
# tamed or trained to obey; "a horse broken to the saddle"; "this old nag is well broken in"
# topographically very uneven; "broken terrain"; "rugged ground"
# imperfectly spoken or written; "broken English"
# thrown into a state of disarray or confusion; "troops fleeing in broken ranks"; "a confused mass of papers on the desk"; "the small disordered room"; "with everything so upset"
# weakened and infirm; "broken health resulting from alcoholism"
# destroyed financially; "the broken fortunes of the family"
# out of working order (`busted' is an informal substitute for `broken'); "a broken washing machine"; "the coke machine is broken"; "the coke machine is busted"
# discontinuous; "broken clouds"; "broken sunshine"
# lacking a part or parts; "a broken set of encyclopedia" "
I'd argue that UK society fits several of those.
I'd also say that one can have a society that doesn't work at all still living on to of the structure put there before it broke. It is now broken, ticking over in a degrading state.
"My PC is broken - it does not work at all. It will not boot and cannot be made to boot without hardware repairs."
My PC is broken - I buggered up the init scripts and it doesn't boot right now. I'll fix it soon.
"*I* bought up Somalia as a clear example of a society that *was* broken, to show the term broken was not a good description of the UK."
And you were wrong.
It isn't about nationalism, it's about self-preservation.