It's the phones and the propaganda being streamed through them 24/7. And if your reaction is, "the rest of the Western world has that too," well, they're really not all that far behind us.
For me (not OP) a clear example I can give from a collage of my past three visits: arrive at JFK, get in the immigration queue, heavily armed agents walking around, some ICE agents looking tough surrounding the area, someone is directing the queue like we are cattle.
Get to the immigration officer, answer questions, get a cold stare a few times looking at me and my passport, unpleasantly asked why do I have two passports (I'm a dual citizen), told I don't look Swedish (of course, I'm naturalised), get told to wait, they leave to get someone else to check something, two immigration officers start shuffling my passport, wait while no one talks to me or acknowledge I'm there, passport stamped and I get told to "move".
Get my bags, and out of the terminal, on the walk through the terminal there's another 15-20 officers with rifles strutting around, get out of the terminal and there are two massive armoured cars from NYPD parked up front, more cops looking a bit tough.
It's an overwhelming presence of "security" everywhere, signs plastered with messages about how illegal stuff will be punished (littering, leaving your bags unattended, smoking, every message seems to say something about "under penalty of the law").
I think if you live with that all the time it's easy to filter out the noise but there's an eery feeling of oppression all around, like a boot is just waiting the right moment to stomp on you.
Maybe Sweden is different from every other country I’ve visited in Europe…but having traveled quite extensively in the EU, most countries I’ve been to don’t feel much different than the US.
Very immigration officer I’ve ever interacted with has been chilly, it’s not some uniquely American thing.
Pretty much every rail station I went through in Europe had extremely (to my eyes) heavily armed guards standing around. I was also asked to present my passport on several occasions. At one Italian station, it happed twice within a few minutes. I’ve been on multiple trains where some flavor of police comes on, checks people’s papers, and then grab some guy and escort him off at the next stop.
I don't mind the stern-looking armed security or immigration officers, it just feels different in the USA. Being chilly is different than being told to "move", I have never experienced such attitude getting into Schengen, at most it's a mostly quiet stern encounter.
It's very hard to express in text the feeling of oppression, it's not about just armed security, it's the attitude of those, it's the attitude of the people representing the State, it feels much more adversarial in the USA than anywhere I've been in Europe.
Also, it's not about being asked to present a passport but presenting a legitimate passport and being met with "you don't look Swedish".
Perhaps you are just too accustomed to the feeling of the USA, as an outsider it does feel different, and way more oppressive.
Where are you from? It's weird to me that you on the one hand defend the US, but on the other DID notice all these armed guards everywhere you went in Europe. If you don't feel it's different, then I don't think you should have noticed it so much? Or if you do notice it everywhere, why would you equate the US and Europe without raising a critical stance against these kinds of policies on either side of the atlantic?
If we had had those guys on 9/11 maybe they would have put a bullet on each terrorist forehead and we would all be happy these days around September.
But really it’s only like that at borders. Just watch the videos of all the foreigners loving on the USA and tearing up when they had to go back to their countries after the World Cup.
Nothing wrong indeed with the sticker that says "I value my life more than your truck". Unfortunately that is not the sticker the OP was talking about.
It must be nerve wracking to live in your shoes day to day. This is, probably due to flying through an airport like JFK. I'm also not sure what you mean by heavily armed agents. Most MPs at airports just have pistols on them.
Interesting you should say that, friend of mine transited through the US recently (overnight stay before a connecting flight) after having not been there for some years and described the experience as "very unnerving". Since she was messaging from inside the US she didn't want to say any more, but I'm expecting a more detailed report once she lands at the other end.
I cannot believe how tone deaf this quote is. Mind boggling. Veep, torture nexus-level parody.
“Because you go on to X or you go on to Reddit and you go, why are people so mad at us when we've been doing the same thing for nine years?” Langley said. “And why are they so mad at us for things we don't do? And we just want people to be safe.”
I find this story to be heartwarming. I hope the employees flee to companies with missions and products more worthy of their talents.
It would be nice to think this will significantly hamper Flock and its goals and methods in any way, but it will probably just have the effect of selecting for the employees who are either true believers, or are desperate enough that they'll keep their heads down and get good work done just to keep their jobs.
Sporadic vandalism, a handful of canceled contracts, some employee morale problems, all of this falls far short of the organized campaign of resistance that would be needed to roll back Flock at this point. Flock really should be the last nail in the coffin of Edward Snowden's libertarian take that mass surveillance can be fought only with individual action and technology rather than political movements.
Over the last months I've gotten very familiar with the tech job market.
Those job postings are ghost jobs. Companies usually keep a few generic jobs online continuously like "Fullstack developer" to fish for top candidates, but there is no actual position that needs to be filled.
Or because required by law for some reasons including visa holders (assuming that’s still a thing in the US these days - fortunate not to have to know)?
My city right outside Austin scrapped it. Its even split between red and blue voters and support for abandoning flock was overwhelmingly in favor of abandoning. Makes me feel good to see others banding together for positive change in today’s political climate in the USA….even if the motivation comes from self interest (too used to “get your government hands off of my medicaid/care” deluded thinking).
I wonder if something similar will happen to Palantir et al.
Flock seeks to shed whistleblowers via financially-motivated self selection
We’d all be safer if we were in jail (sorry to give the clown ideas)
Been to America the other week on IT conference honestly felt like I was in prison since the moment I landed my boots on your soil
A disturbing amount of people so not recognize the fact. An even higher percentage willingly supports their own disenfranchisement.
It's amazing what easy access to meat, processed food and Walmart does to your brain.
It's the phones and the propaganda being streamed through them 24/7. And if your reaction is, "the rest of the Western world has that too," well, they're really not all that far behind us.
AI is now the digital Walmart. It's basically proposing to do exactly what mom & pop found out, except everywhere on the internet.
What made you feel that way?
For me (not OP) a clear example I can give from a collage of my past three visits: arrive at JFK, get in the immigration queue, heavily armed agents walking around, some ICE agents looking tough surrounding the area, someone is directing the queue like we are cattle.
Get to the immigration officer, answer questions, get a cold stare a few times looking at me and my passport, unpleasantly asked why do I have two passports (I'm a dual citizen), told I don't look Swedish (of course, I'm naturalised), get told to wait, they leave to get someone else to check something, two immigration officers start shuffling my passport, wait while no one talks to me or acknowledge I'm there, passport stamped and I get told to "move".
Get my bags, and out of the terminal, on the walk through the terminal there's another 15-20 officers with rifles strutting around, get out of the terminal and there are two massive armoured cars from NYPD parked up front, more cops looking a bit tough.
It's an overwhelming presence of "security" everywhere, signs plastered with messages about how illegal stuff will be punished (littering, leaving your bags unattended, smoking, every message seems to say something about "under penalty of the law").
I think if you live with that all the time it's easy to filter out the noise but there's an eery feeling of oppression all around, like a boot is just waiting the right moment to stomp on you.
Maybe Sweden is different from every other country I’ve visited in Europe…but having traveled quite extensively in the EU, most countries I’ve been to don’t feel much different than the US.
Very immigration officer I’ve ever interacted with has been chilly, it’s not some uniquely American thing.
Pretty much every rail station I went through in Europe had extremely (to my eyes) heavily armed guards standing around. I was also asked to present my passport on several occasions. At one Italian station, it happed twice within a few minutes. I’ve been on multiple trains where some flavor of police comes on, checks people’s papers, and then grab some guy and escort him off at the next stop.
I don't mind the stern-looking armed security or immigration officers, it just feels different in the USA. Being chilly is different than being told to "move", I have never experienced such attitude getting into Schengen, at most it's a mostly quiet stern encounter.
It's very hard to express in text the feeling of oppression, it's not about just armed security, it's the attitude of those, it's the attitude of the people representing the State, it feels much more adversarial in the USA than anywhere I've been in Europe.
Also, it's not about being asked to present a passport but presenting a legitimate passport and being met with "you don't look Swedish".
Perhaps you are just too accustomed to the feeling of the USA, as an outsider it does feel different, and way more oppressive.
Where are you from? It's weird to me that you on the one hand defend the US, but on the other DID notice all these armed guards everywhere you went in Europe. If you don't feel it's different, then I don't think you should have noticed it so much? Or if you do notice it everywhere, why would you equate the US and Europe without raising a critical stance against these kinds of policies on either side of the atlantic?
I think you can get a sense of what kind of person they are by this kind of comments [0][1].
[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49697884
[1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49441324
A person that likes normal non woke stuff and does not like feces on the street?
Seems normal to me.
If we had had those guys on 9/11 maybe they would have put a bullet on each terrorist forehead and we would all be happy these days around September.
But really it’s only like that at borders. Just watch the videos of all the foreigners loving on the USA and tearing up when they had to go back to their countries after the World Cup.
Nah. The first thing I saw when I walked out of Anchorage airport is a truck with a bumper sticker saying "my truck is worth more than your life."
Every bad thing in the US is a caricature of what caricatures were 50 years ago.
What’s wrong with that bumper sticker?
From my PoV, it seems odd someone would value someone else’s truck more than their own life!
Nothing wrong indeed with the sticker that says "I value my life more than your truck". Unfortunately that is not the sticker the OP was talking about.
It must be nerve wracking to live in your shoes day to day. This is, probably due to flying through an airport like JFK. I'm also not sure what you mean by heavily armed agents. Most MPs at airports just have pistols on them.
Interesting you should say that, friend of mine transited through the US recently (overnight stay before a connecting flight) after having not been there for some years and described the experience as "very unnerving". Since she was messaging from inside the US she didn't want to say any more, but I'm expecting a more detailed report once she lands at the other end.
Heh. Real-world occurrence of Silicon Valley "We just want to make the world a better place" (also $billions, mainly that actually)
https://archive.is/9FuDK
Oh nooooooo! /s
I cannot believe how tone deaf this quote is. Mind boggling. Veep, torture nexus-level parody.
I find this story to be heartwarming. I hope the employees flee to companies with missions and products more worthy of their talents.
It would be nice to think this will significantly hamper Flock and its goals and methods in any way, but it will probably just have the effect of selecting for the employees who are either true believers, or are desperate enough that they'll keep their heads down and get good work done just to keep their jobs.
Sporadic vandalism, a handful of canceled contracts, some employee morale problems, all of this falls far short of the organized campaign of resistance that would be needed to roll back Flock at this point. Flock really should be the last nail in the coffin of Edward Snowden's libertarian take that mass surveillance can be fought only with individual action and technology rather than political movements.
"Founded in 2017, Flock raised money at a valuation of more than $8 billion in a funding round that closed in April."
https://www.flocksafety.com/blog/flock-safety-secures-major-...
https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety
https://www.ycombinator.com/companies/flock-safety/jobs
https://techcrunch.com/2025/03/13/y-combinators-police-surve...
https://techfundingnews.com/275m-at-7-5-valuation-y-combinat...
https://www.ycdb.co/company/flock-safety
https://www.linkedin.com/posts/y-combinator_flock-safety-has...
https://www.inc.com/lisa-bonos/how-flock-became-the-most-con...
Why are they doing this when they're hiring:
https://www.workatastartup.com/companies/flock-safety
Over the last months I've gotten very familiar with the tech job market. Those job postings are ghost jobs. Companies usually keep a few generic jobs online continuously like "Fullstack developer" to fish for top candidates, but there is no actual position that needs to be filled.
Or because required by law for some reasons including visa holders (assuming that’s still a thing in the US these days - fortunate not to have to know)?
My city right outside Austin scrapped it. Its even split between red and blue voters and support for abandoning flock was overwhelmingly in favor of abandoning. Makes me feel good to see others banding together for positive change in today’s political climate in the USA….even if the motivation comes from self interest (too used to “get your government hands off of my medicaid/care” deluded thinking).
It's weird to see that any towns even remotely close to Austin would support Flock at all in the first place.