Linguistic Tricks: The Promotion of Your Safety is a Lie

In 2021 I posted a photo in a city’s subreddit that was almost immediately met with critique and criticism in the classic, unnecessarily vile Internet way. The picture contained a “camera tree,” which was made up of eight not-even-hidden devices pointed proudly at cars, pedestrians, and anything that happened to cross these paths. This was in addition to three cameras that had already been installed at this location a year earlier. My question accompanying the photo and post was simple: why?

I deleted the post an hour later due to the ill-informed comments I was receiving. OP, what did you do that was caught on camera? Why are you afraid of security camera footage? A couple folks decided to state in a rather matter-of-fact way that the camera quality is probably not even good and is definitely not stored in a server due to its low quality. (????) Other comments included Cops! I found the suspect you’ve been looking for! as well as Here’s someone who’s paranoid about security cameras that prevent crime. The Reddit upvote snitch system determined me to be the enemy, simply for the concern I had postured.

I did a bit of research and found out that this camera implementation process is a part of a multi-million dollar initiative to protect the city.

I sure as hell don’t feel protected when every place that I go to- gas stations, grocery stores, and all- will be recording this information and storing it forever. It is surely hard to grasp that this data is collected and preserved, and it’s even harder to grasp the immense value of this information. Folks I have spoken to lack an interest or care because of the lack of immediate danger. When I speak of a future where this data is weaponized and used against the individual, whether it be by means of full out war, or by means of a person to person basis, such as insurance restrictions, I am informed by the folks that I am conversing with that this is a dystopic, unrealistic attempt at scare tactics that is Not Going to Happen.

The days of worrying about the physical is gone; the immersion of tech offers a new reality (another linguistic trick!). Nuclear threats are real and fathomable, but for some reason the abuse of data is not on the forefront of our technology immersed minds. The Internet isn’t the real world…right?

When did we become so primed to accept the surveillance state as a part of everyday life? The false promotion and linguistic trick of security is sickening; we are all made out to be criminals by these new standards. This is a surveillance state, but maybe the linguistics must be altered again in order for recognition to be properly due. Welcome to the compliance state. Does that make the situation easier to digest, or worse?

That’s not a security camera – that’s a compliance camera.