the citizen app, paranoia funded by peter thiel

an app on your phone that alerts you to "danger" nearby. some seriously sinister undertones here, feels like its gonna be a thing

"Citizen: crime app falsely accused a homeless man of starting a wildfire"
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2021/may/18/citizen-app-palisades-fire-wrongly-accused-man

"Leaked Emails Show Crime App Citizen Is Testing On-Demand Security Force" [seems like they've scrapped these plans]
https://www.vice.com/en/article/v7evbx/citizen-app-private-security-leaked-emails

I was offered work writing "incident descriptions" for this. The money was good but I turned it down.

good for you. hope this goes nowhere.

Ceo sounds like a swell guy.

https://www.vice.com/amp/en/article/y3dpyw/inside-crime-app-citizen-vigilante

"BREAKING NEWS. this guy is the devil. get him," Frame said. "by midnight!@#! we hate this guy. GET HIM."

"For me, this is a cultural milestone" he commented after it transpired the guy was innocent.

yeah it's a slippery slope from police scanner/blotter to mob incitement tool that they seem to be eagerly sledding down

God I hope the paranoid boomers in my neighborhood group never latch onto this, it will break their brains and lead to a lot of innocent people getting hassled.

Case in point, just yesterday we got an email from some lady that read, "Beware! There are three shifty looking characters standing around a truck with out of state plates. All three are wearing bright yellow vests. Keep an eye out!"

Less than two minutes later, someone else responded, "Yes. That would be the crew tuckpointing our house. They wear yellow vests for safety."

All criminals wear yellow vests when they're doing Crime, health and safety regs you know.

Les gilets jaunes

Right? It's just the complete lack of any critical thinking or processing before these paranoid shitbirds just jump to the automatic conclusion that everyone is a fucking criminal. Whatever, I've already been publicly shamed on the email list for daring to suggest, twice, that maybe calling the cops on every person they don't recognize isn't the right approach so fuck 'em, but it makes me so angry.

Why are you part of a facebook group for deranged paranoiacs?

I've avoided this like the plague, but a buddy keeps sending me screenshots that are bananas: 'man on fire swinging two hammers' , 'naked woman in tree,' etc. I'd rather live in peaceful ignorance.

Once this app helped reunite a loose iguana with his owner

Why are you part of a facebook group for deranged paranoiacs?

It's not a Facebook group, it's an email list for our neighborhood that I stupidly signed up for when we first moved in. There are a bunch of decent people in our area, they just all ignore the emails. The only reason I haven't taken us off of it entirely is that there is that it's been a good resource for babysitters for our son (in the before times) and our alderperson sends helpful updates through it.

Ok fair enough sorry for the snarky question

No, it's fair! That wasn't me being defensive, more reminding myself that it is sometimes useful when it isn't being abused by terrified idiots.

I've avoided this like the plague, but a buddy keeps sending me screenshots that are bananas: 'man on fire swinging two hammers' , 'naked woman in tree,' etc. I'd rather live in peaceful ignorance.

the paranoid boomers on my area's nextdoor are already way into this

been thinking about the rene girard video someone posted in another thread re: peter thiel, anyway fuck this psycho fascist shit

the kind of stuff that makes me want to detach from my phone and social media more than i already am

the paranoid boomers on my area's nextdoor are already way into this

― superdeep borehole (harbl), Thursday, May 27, 2021 6:29 PM (yesterday)

does this cohort include the amazing older racist child-hating woman from your nextdoor posts?

Where does he live, Burning Man, NV?

Lol - no, just good old Oakland

xp no but she's put out some bangers lately. there are plenty more where she comes from.

An excellent piece on Thiel.

https://johnganz.substack.com/p/the-enigma-of-peter-thiel?

An excellent piece on Thiel.

https://johnganz.substack.com/p/the-enigma-of-peter-thiel🕸?

Surprised not to see a bit more chat on the timeline about Thiel’s FT op-ed, but then I’m not sure how to discuss it either. It is one of the strangest things I’ve ever seen in a mainstream publication. pic.twitter.com/RkjsvO12Jv

— Elvis Buñuelo (@Mr_Considerate) January 11, 2025

The Boccaccio quote at the end is p crazy. There are a lot right-wing/ business blue-check twitter who -- when tweeting about their day -- say they go to the gym at 7am and spend half an hour reading a few pages from a book.

And I partly feel that's the mind at work here.