There’s an App for That

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Do you remember the old horror film, Invasion of the Body Snatchers? Alien pods replaced people with simulacrums that looked just like them. When one of these simulacrums noticed a still-real person, it would point its finger and release a kind of hiss-scream to alert the other pod people. 

Now there’s an app for that. 

It’s called SpeecamAnywhere and it’s just the ticket for hiss-screaming Clovers who cannot abide anyone driving faster than they think is fast enough. Or causing their air (as they regard it) to not be “clean” enough.

 

When honking the horn and flashing the brights isn’t quite satisfying enough.

“Putting the power of AI in your hands to help make our roads safer and our air cleaner.” reads the promo for the app, which was developed by Silicon Valley technocrats working in conjunction with universities in Great Britain.

“Our” italicized to emphasize the point they’re trying to make.

These collectivists, who view the world through “we” – the other form of “our” – as determined by them.

The speed everyone else should drive – and be shamed (and punished) for exceeding – is any speed that is faster than the speed they consider “safe.”

Plus the new and improved additional moralizing unction about “clean air.”

You see, driving faster burns more gas – and that results in the “emission” of more gas, the dread carbon dioxide that’s causing the “climate” to “change” so dangerously that those who most insist it’s happening are buying up beach-front properties just inches above the putatively rising sea levels.

Never mind.

And never mind that “clean” electric cars don’t “emit” any gasses while they are “speeding.”

The point is to create a panopticon of universal compliance – via universal spying – and not just as regards “speeding.”

It is a technology meant to empower busybodies to monitor – and narc out – anyone they see who is doing anything they dislike. Like Mike van Erp. He is a militant Spandexer – one of those religious cyclists who cannot abide sharing the road with cars – who has personally narced out more than 1,000 people to the piggies for what he considers to be “unsafe” driving.

The Guardian did a piece on this guy. It is worth quoting, at length:

Suddenly (van Erp) spots something. ‘Here we go,’ he says, swinging around his sensible-looking blue touring bike, and pedalling away from the traffic lights. He edges along the stationary vehicles until he is parallel to a car. It is well over a minute before the driver looks up and spots him – and the camera strapped to his baseball cap.

When he returns, a grinning van Erp tells me the man reacted badly to the realisation he was being caught on camera. Why the fury? The driver was using his phone as he waited for the traffic to move – and van Erp recorded him doing it. In the coming months the man will most likely face a fine and six points on his driving licence, in turn triggering a significant jump in his insurance premium.”

This is what gets such creatures as van Erp off.

No harm done, but something done that van Erp did not like that is also technical-foul illegal. Like not wearing a Face Diaper, for instance. Or not wearing it fully, as many do, in order to be able to breath and also to express their contempt for this vile and degrading “practice,” which by the way appears to be returning

Apps such as SpeedcamAnywhere will be very useful in sussing out – and inflicting punishment upon – anyone who dares defiance. Of anything.

And people such as van Erp – who is reportedly a “caregiver” – will revel in it.

One of the app’s defenders says, “It’s not a personal vendetta against anyone . . . it’s just – how do we make our roads safe?”

There it is, again.

“There are 20,000 serious injuries on the roads (in the UK) every year – how can we reduce them”?

Well, how about by not fixating on “speeding,” which isn’t what causes these injuries. They are caused by loss of control, inattentiveness – a variety of driver errors. “Speeding” – as such, is not necessarily correlative. But people like van Erp and the app’s developers think people ought to be punished merely for “speeding” – even when (as in most of the time) their “speeding” hasn’t injured anyone. Not including the hurt feelings of people such as van Erp, of which there are unfortunately all-too-many.

The app’s developer also lets the cat out of the bag when he says: “Having roads that are just too dangerous for kids to cycle to school on, having roads that are too dangerous for parents let their kids cross – I think that’s wrong, and society needs to get over it. Make the roads safer, make them less unpleasant, and then we can start to look at how else we can move around.”

Italics added, once more.

“Society”?

Who’s “we,” white man?

And mark that part about how else “we” can move around. Get a bike, prole. Or, walk. It’s much safer.

Good for the environment, too.

All part of the Great Work – to end driving by making driving as ugsome as possible.

Happily, the developers of this loathsome app are on the receiving end of some healthy shaming. One online reviewer of the app wrote: “In East Germany, citizens were encouraged to report their neighbors to the Stasi for even the smallest societal infraction. Congratulations on creating a modern day version of that. If you couldn’t tell, I’m being sarcastic. This app disgusts me.”

Unhappily, both Google and Apple are reportedly considering offering the App through their “play” stores. Given the millions of van Erp types out there, it is probably inevitable they’ll be empowered by it, to hiss-scream at anyone they think isn’t following the rules exactly enough.

“Speeding” and otherwise.

. . .

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40 COMMENTS

  1. Why hire officers to scout neighborhoods or setup speed traps, when ANYONE can be the fuzz? If COVID taught me anything, it’s that people have absolutely no qualms about having their fellow citizens “put down”.

  2. Hi Eric – not sure if you’ve seen this. watch the AGWs throw to the ground and arrest this (terminally ill) guy swat team style. His crime – mooning a speed camera… as something on his bucket list before he dies…. contrast that to the treatment of someone who commits an ACTUAL crime like robbery or murder – they get a “suspended sentence” (meaning let off)….

    https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10721503/Terminally-ill-lecturer-55-mooned-speed-camera-bucket-list-appear-court.html

    • Morning, Nasir –

      Appalling. And infuriating. The AGWs who did this are scum of the earth, the modern Einsatzgruppen who will shove people into cattle cars and worse. They are the willing tools of Satanic forces and I hope their day will come.

      Soon.

  3. Eric,

    I’m surprised you weren’t happy about van Erp catching the phone user on Candid Camera; after all, it’s these yahoos who fail to go when the light turns green! Weren’t you complaining about Phone Guy holding you up, because he didn’t go when the light turned green?

    Seriously, I get what you’re saying. Now, the Stasi won’t even have to pay these guys; they’ll work for free! Who says gov’t can’t be efficient when they want to be?

  4. Van Erp should try that on the south side of Chicago. In NYC they do a similar thing where if you film a delivery truck idling for more than two minutes to deliver something you can film it and send it to the city to get a cut of the ticket. Some enterprising grifters make over 100K a year doing just that.

    • Some people truly earn extremely inventive and exquisitely agonizing deaths. The khazar mafiya has a special technique in dealing with problems, a man in a tinted visor motorcycle helmet typically pays you a visit with a molotov and a 9mm. it is quite inventive as it makes identifying the actor impossible even with the best of security cameras

  5. In the old days, used to use the schools to get ahold of your kids, who would then inform on you.

    Apparently this strategy is no longer working to their satisfaction?

    Or perhaps they just think they are more sophisticated now?

    Snitches get stitches.

  6. This is disgusting, the proliferation of “apps” to empower the busybodies. Coming soon to the USSA: a combination of the Stasi and Commie China’s social credit score, along with Trudeau style theft of your assets if you don’t comply.

  7. Easiest way to take down the van Erps of the world is to request a trial if you get a ticket and exercise your constitutional right to confront your accuser. Forces the van Erps to appear and if not, you win. Once the van Erps realize they’ll have to go to trial each time a ticket is issued, this app will die the death it deserves.

  8. 150,000,000 vehicles driven every day probably uses 600 million gallons of gas.

    The use of the vehicle needs to be limited to less than four hours each day. An app to allow the engine to start the vehicle would be a good way to reduce traffic on roads.

    You can drive only when we say you can, not your decision anymore. No driving on days off from work, the car won’t start anyhow until you are allowed to use it for work and some shopping. It’ll be for your own good and the good of others, shouldn’t be difficult to make such a small sacrifice. Tyranny works best when you comply and are agreeable to the conditions.

    You’re just being greedy and selfish if you think you can drive anywhere anytime. No more, enough is enough. We’ll make you stop using our roads.

    Man on a Tightrope is a movie released in 1953. A circus owner escapes communist occupied Czechoslovakia, the tyrants who make life miserable for anybody never stop.

    Tough to cope in Shanghai during the lockdown, people are shouting and screaming well into the night from the rooftops. Pots and pans will be next, then the escape from the stay at home prison.

    27,000,000 Shanghai residents need to revolt.

  9. When we lived in WA State 10 years ago, the highway patrol had a very popular tip line for reporting HOV lane violations, with billboards posted along the side of the road providing the contact numbers.

    Enforcement still required eyes-on by law enforcement, fortunately.

    Here in Texas, enforcement of traffic laws by government entities based on camera images/footage is prohibited, but that doesn’t mean that private enterprise can’t deploy the systems and attempt to collect from the unaware new residents.

  10. What a creepy App.

    On another note: my older car buddy has his hearing aid tuned via an App on his phone. Now I’m thinking how much of what is being said can be recorded and uploaded for the Stasi? Our phones are tapped according to Snowden anyway, we live in a surveillance state.

    Lastly, I bought some Twitter stock (F’king hate this company). Tucker had a great suggestion last night that Musk might control Twitter by asking stockholders for their proxy vote. Maybe Musk is just playing everyone and might be a false flag to inflate then dump the stock and make on options. But maybe he might be legit and wants to make it a free platform for open debate??

      • Hi Simple Si,

        That’s the necessary corrective. Busybodies have been emboldened.They have exploited the decent instinct most people have to be accommodating and to avoid confrontation. But sometimes, confrontation can be therapeutic! I now regularly make baaaaaaa!!! sheep sounds when I see a Face Diaperer.

  11. ‘The point is to create a panopticon of universal compliance’ — eric

    Add facial recognition, and Speedcam Anywhere morphs into Maskless Anywhere. Snap a scofflaw’s bold, bald face in public (confirmed by GPS metadata), and they get relieved of their paper currency … on a first offense.

    A second offense, indicating incorrigibility, could bring much graver consequences such as a lengthy mandatory quarantine.

    What better place to deploy such cutting-edge public health technology than Commiefornia, where this gift to mankind originated?

  12. Faster driving means less time on the roads, less congestion, less need for more roads, and probably less pollution. Too complicate for the slow driving, slow witted, left lane sitters to understand.

  13. Man, that article was filled with creepy sheet.

    “How that Van Erp guy isn’t beaten senseless (or worse) by a mob is beyond me.”

    It would have to occur at night, or something, when his Dalek eye-cam is turned the other way.

    For some positive vibes, a quote from her article, ‘If It Feels Like You’re Being Manipulated, It’s Because You Are’:

    “If there’s something in you that whispers there’s a good chance we make it despite the long odds we appear to be facing, I will tell you a secret: I hear it too.”
    https://caityjohnstone.medium.com/the-humans-are-waking-up-eb47bcfe6fac

    And, this one:
    https://caitlinjohnstone.substack.com/p/society-is-made-of-narrative-realizing?s=r

    • this is only one such asshole – Sadly in the UK we have swarms of these middle aged nobody’s who want to feel like their someone body by riding around with their helmet cams running looking for people carrying out all sorts of infringements. These are the same who wear masks and hassle others for not wearing one. God protect us all from such creatures – but I’d like to think if I ever come across one I’d grab the camera off and drive away….. keep it as a trophy….

      • I imagine you know, just in case you didn’t, Daleks were machines on the outside, yet had ugly little living creatures on the inside. Just like the Stasi-van Erp, minus the laser beam?

        When you wrote, “we have swarms of these” I couldn’t help but think that’s exactly the Daleks.

        Daleks Exterminating!!!
        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Or-epXMvTM8
        “We are the superior beings!”

  14. People so insecure, and unable to chart their own course, that they must have some universally applied strict rules to live by. And so you must abide by the rules they require to function in the world. Their thought process wholly dependent upon such rules being in place, and vigorously enforced.

    • The lions, the sheep & the hyenas

      https://www.lewrockwell.com/2022/04/allan-stevo/if-you-have-problems-trusting-you-will-have-problems-living-a-life-of-freedom/

      Sounds like the title of a novel such as, ‘Lord of the Rings’, which in turn, I was surprised by how similar the film series, ‘Lord of the Rings’ was to the cable TeeVee series, ‘Game of Thrones’, the films even had some of the same actors.

      Got this song in my head now for some reason:
      The Jimi Hendrix Experience – All Along The Watchtower (Official Audio)
      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TLV4_xaYynY

    • Most people in my observation want subjective rules selectively enforced.
      Ever notice that there are all these laws that are only for those bad people over there and if enforced on a ‘good’ person it’s worth a human interest story on the local TV news. To get presidential look at how Trump and family were treated vs. Biden and family. And getting back to masks I noticed that even the most ardent covidians would make excuses for why special people didn’t follow the mask rules.

      I’ve long noticed that people hate universally applied strict rules and will get upset if that is done. It is usually considered ‘unfair’ to have rules like that. Low speed limits stick around because they are not universally enforced. If the speed limits were universally enforced with significant penalties not only would there be more congestion on the roads but people would fight to have things changed. It’s only because only some people are targeted that goes on year after year decade after decade.

      The control freaks who want a grid to inform on or monitor motorists have to bring it about slowly. Sudden strict uninversally enforced laws will cause a revolt.

      • Cops I notice tend to make traffic stops on older model or cheaper make cars, typically driven by younger people. I always wondered about that and perhaps speaks to your point about uneven enforcement. Rarely if ever do i see a brand new expensive pickup or Audi pulled over…..

  15. How that Van Erp guy isn’t beaten senseless (or worse) by a mob is beyond me. What a wannabe Stasi POS.
    People of his ilk remind me of a verse from the Good Book:
    When therefore they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said to them: He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her.
    John 8:7

    I always found driving fast FORCED me to be more attentive. I don’t drive as fast as I once did, but that’s my choice. I also don’t camp in the left lane and move over to the right lane after passing unlike these middling morons who “drive” in their CRVs and other crossover vehicles.

  16. Eric – how did you muster up the courage to read the Guardian – the paper gives me nightmares….

    I’ve heard of this thing – I think some years ago I did mention this is my concern with the proliferation of these dash cams. Infact some go further by automatically uploading everything to the cloud where you can just mark it for submission to the Stasi for review. And unfortunately in Britain the vast majority will just love this sort of thing….

    • Morning, Nasir!

      Perfidious Albion, eh? It’s a shame Great Britain has become the very thing it purportedly fought to rid Europe of, some 80 years ago…

      • Eric – it truly is a shame what the UK has become….. The law here in the UK is such that unfortunately these can actually be a liability for the driver.. In theory, our dear leaders can demand you hand over the dash cam and the memory card without “tampering” with it when they wish. If they suspect you do “tamper” with it – they can screw you over. There have been cases where a guys own dash cam was used to prove he was “speeding”.

  17. EVs will kill off new internal combustion vehicles.

    The Biden Thing just announced new Ethanol 15 mandates, so that, along with insane new “Green Taxes”, will kill off the old cars for those thinking we’ll just go “Cuba Norte'” and keep 50 year old beaters running forever.

    Loathsome technology like this, and speed cameras and tax by mile Big Brother transponders will kill off all the rest.

    Enjoy your Chairman Mao bicycles, proles.

      • It does work. You’re simply speeding up the process of what would have happened in your tank, pump, fuel lines, and carburetor. Unfortunately the resultant gas is lower octane but probably fine for antique cars and small engines. If it’s 87 or 88 octane gasahol, the washed gas will be about 84 octane. But on a 6:1 compression ratio flathead, that works. Or you can add non-ethanol octane booster back into it- don’t know how well that will work.

        Mostly though, gasahol is a complete scam- you burn more of it to get the same result, with all the problems to your car/equipment that it incurs.

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