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People Are Sheep

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Clarissa

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One of the most befuddling things I witnessed at work is that when the administration told people to upload the COVID app onto their PRIVATE phones, they did. The administration didn’t provide the phones. It didn’t offer to pay the phone bills. Nothing like that.

People willingly uploaded the app onto their PRIVATE phones. They got absolutely no benefit out of it. All the app does (other than tracking your every move and selling that data) is ping when the administration wants you to get COVID tested. There’s zero benefit to the user.

But people easily and eagerly installed this app onto their PRIVATE phones just because the employer suggested it. There were no penalties for those who didn’t do it. There was literally no reason to comply. I mean, it’s my fucking phone. I paid for it with my own money. Who the fuck are you to tell me what to upload? Where in my contract does it say I have to let you into my private phone? What’s next? Do I have to invite the administration into the shower with me?

But once again, nobody coerced people into doing it. They just freely did. The only person I know who found the suggestion egregious was me. People would literally do anything they are told. Simply because they are told. The self-infantilization is intense.

19 responses to “People Are Sheep”

  1. lb Avatar
    lb

    I also refuse to upload these apps to my phone, saying it’s my private phone, not the university’s (or whoever’s), and people don’t get it. There’s a driver’s license app you can get, I just found out, that puts your license on your phone. Doesn’t that surely bring other things with it, too? Or not?

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  2. cliff arroyo Avatar
    cliff arroyo

    ” their PRIVATE phones”

    If the private floods into the public sphere then the public sphere is going to flood right back into the private sphere…

    Liked by 1 person

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  3. ed Avatar
    ed

    Yeah, this is a little troubling.

    What seems crazy to me is I get the sense younger people are less willing to do this type of thing because they have a better understanding of the consequences of allowing these apps on their phones. Older people seem clueless to me. It’s like they don’t fully grasp how powerful these devices are and the insane amount of data they give away willingly.

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    1. lb Avatar
      lb

      Well then they will get less and less compliance. Good. From my perspective, it’s younger people who don’t realize–these used to be known facts. It was with the cutesy little devices, even the original Mac that was supposed to be as easy to use as a toaster, the people forgot, that is, were coerced into forgetting. “Get this cute little animated flower (it will steal all your stuff),” etc.

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  4. Just George Avatar
    Just George

    Where I live, there is no bill of rights. So, the government may easily track your every movement.

    Anyway, when these apps were first introduced, I naturally said that everyone would have to be mad to install such a thing voluntarily, since the government had proven itself to be so incompetent that the only thing that the app would ever be used for was some kind of injustice.

    In response, the replies I got included things like “well since the government can track you already then you should install the COVID app”.

    So the logic of installing a spying app was because the government was already spying, then it was okay for the government to spy on you twice. Or something.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      That’s exactly the argument I keep hearing. “But everything on your phone is already harvested by tech companies.”

      First of all, there’s a difference between tech companies and my employer. And second, do I really need to explain how allowing the employer to have control over your private property is a bad idea? This is the slipperiest of slopes. If the employer can tell you which apps to have on your privately owned device, why can’t it tell you what books to have in your house? Especially since my employer is the state of Illinois, this sounds like a really bad idea.

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      1. methylethyl Avatar
        methylethyl

        If an employer requires me to have a phone, A) the employer needs to buy it, and B) I need to be paid “on-call” rates for any time I am expected to respond to the device outside work hours.

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      2. Just George Avatar
        Just George

        “That’s exactly the argument I keep hearing. “But everything on your phone is already harvested by tech companies.””

        According to my knowledge, a large proportion of the population is not capable of consequential thinking. In other words, they are largely unable to contemplate sequential cascades of cause & effect so as to predict what will probably happen in the future following any given set of circumstances, so as to consider if something is good or bad.

        Trying to reason with people like that is pretty much pointless because their brain computer operating system simply doesn’t function in a way that makes them capable of understanding what you’re talking about. They just jeer or call you crazy or something.

        Because of that, I don’t spend time trying to persuade any of them anymore. They’re just too stupid.

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  5. xykademiqz Avatar
    xykademiqz

    I am very conservative about what apps I put on my phone, but I couldn’t avoid downloading the covid one. I couldn’t enter the building to teach if I didn’t have the all-clear up-to-date badge to show at the entrance. The app is also used for weekly (semi-weekly for students) saliva tests, which are mandatory for all students, and all faculty and staff who come to campus. I am not happy about it, but it couldn’t be helped.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Of course, if you are forced, then it’s not on you. But at my school, nobody had to do it. It was all completely optional. And still people downloaded with zero objection.

      I didn’t and nobody said a word.

      Liked by 1 person

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    2. EQ84 Avatar
      EQ84

      So you have to have a smartphone to come back to campus??

      Liked by 2 people

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      1. xykademiqz Avatar
        xykademiqz

        Yep, pretty much. I know there are some options for people who don’t have a smartphone, but I didn’t look into it in detail.

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  6. Lukasz Kwiatkowski Avatar
    Lukasz Kwiatkowski

    It’s true, people are sheep. I work in a gym ( if you can call furlough working) and last year they put posters up on the door for people to scan them. Fact, the majority didn’t do it, but I did see some people, including staff, who scanned it every time. I often told members they didn’t have to do it. What baffles me is that the gym is spread across 3 floors so if all you did was went straight to the class, and a guy you never crossed paths with “tested positive” was there too, you’d get a notification. Simply because you were both in the same building. Not to mention some people do leave their phones lying around in one place, or lockers so if the app only tracks the phones and not people, it’s equally bad

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      People love to do what they are told. They effectively outsource their decision-making capacity to others, forgetting that you can’t outsource the consequences of the decisions.

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      1. Lukasz Kwiatkowski Avatar
        Lukasz Kwiatkowski

        That’s a great point actually. Thanks for that.

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  7. Tal Hartsfeld Avatar
    Tal Hartsfeld

    You should hear the prerecorded announcements that keep blasting out of the loudspeakers on the city bus continuously
    ….the same crap over and over and over—-constant reminders to “wear a mask”, “social distance”, “masks must be worn over both the mouth and nose”, “please be mindful of traffic when exiting the bus”, “for your safety ….”
    ….for at least the last year or so. You would think most people would have this shit memorized by now.
    ….oh, and this is all in-between advertisements for trade schools, plasma centers, various public service messages, and other types of subjects that would only pertain to certain types of individuals but certainly not to all transit riders in general. And in such a domineeringly cajoling-to-coercive manner at that.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      At least, we don’t have this shit where I live. They do in Montreal, blasting this garbage in residential areas with no concern over how it affects families with small children, people with mental health issues, and the elderly.

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  8. Tal Hartsfeld Avatar
    Tal Hartsfeld

    The speakers on the city buses are all inside. It’s only the passengers who hear them.
    Still—-makes commuting quite insufferable for one who just wants to get from one place to another.

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    1. Clarissa Avatar
      Clarissa

      Oh, in Canada it’s worse. A vehicle would go around blasting this from the loudspeakers all day. “Stay inside. Don’t leave unless there’s dire necessity. Stay inside.” Very creepy.

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A conservative literary critic and college professor

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