We need close-knit communities where good old boys are eager to enforce the nervous prejudices of the community using violence and intimidation anyway. We just need lots of such communities, with very varied nervous prejudices, including the occasional such community with a nervous prejudice against the situation I'm describing (an escape hatch within the system)
If you think there's some degree of social homogeneity that will keep people from conceiving suspicions, hatreds, and jealousies, dream on.
I was saying that a small community whose favorite prejudice is that against prejudice would make a safe harbor in case one can't otherwise find a community of likeminded individuals.
Seems that it is probably less to shame and more to threaten the suspects with surveillance of their criminal activities. I don't have any particular issue with it, but I suspect civil libertarians might. (In particular, "We pretend to watch them, to scare them into thinking we really are watching them, and thus to control them without exerting effort" is called the "panopticon" in academic literature, and is widely…
Who are "civil libertarians"? People who value their civil liberties? People who are willing to do something to protect them? Whatever they are, you say you're not one. Interesting.
There's a difference between all-else-equal and uber-alles when it comes to a positive thing. This is why the abortion debate has cute euphemisms that are both pro-something-the-other-side-is-also-in-favor-of.
Who are "civil libertarians"? People who value their civil liberties? People who are willing to do something to protect them? Whatever they are, you say you're not one. Interesting.
Who are "civil libertarians"? People who value their civil liberties? People who value civil liberties are civil libertarians in the same sense that people who value women are feminists. Whatever they are, you say you're not one. Correct. I am also not a feminist.
While posting another reply, I just saw that the abortion-stance euphemisms make the same appropriate analogy here as the analogy you chose.
People who value life are pro-life in the same sense that people who value choice are pro-choice in the same sense that people who value civil liberties are civil libertarians in the same sense that people who value women are feminists.
I wouldn't say that it's designed for when police don't want to do their job. There are many communities where there aren't enough police to do a good job. Using techniques like this seems like it would allow them to use actual humans where they're more needed. The cases cited in the article were of neighbors asking the police to somehow combat the unruly elements in their communities. It seems like you're under the…
As far as I'm concerned, nobody is a drug dealer until the police have caught them dealing drugs. Gossip is not a good way to determine who the good guys and bad guys are. In the cases described, what's freaking people out is their neighbors being noisy and dirty and keeping odd hours. These are class and cultural differences which, I will admit, are really annoying and (I assume) strongly associated with criminal ac…
If a community is splitting into two factions, the ideal would be for them to geographically separate. If a few people look down on the whole rest of the group, the few should go find a like-minded group. Obviously, "just moving" isn't as easy as one would like, but the benefit is opting into the homogeneity that some want.
If you don't like the behavior of some others, you can tolerate it, leave, or attempt to make them choose to change or leave. Communities should be small and should be allowed to have stupid rules as long as they're all willing to follow and enforce them. There just needs to be a place to go for those who don't like the rules, and going to that place needs to not be too inconvenient.