There is a balance. I know this is Hacker News and we're all supposed to be progressive technical vanguards fighting against The Man, but genuine bad guys exist out there. And we need to protect ourselves from them.
This isn't a case of an innocent man going to prison just so we can jail a hundred criminals. This is giving up a modicum of privacy in order to make the world safer for everybody. I think that's entirely reasonable.
This isn't rational, this is purely emotional. This could be a statement from a police officer that did see some awful criminals, but that would be filed under being emotionally compromised.
If you look on large scale threats to the general population, this kind of surveillance poses a much bigger risk.
I doubt this is about protecting people or preventing crime. Justice comes after the fact and is all about retribution. Depending on the crime, the damage done by perpetrators can never be undone.
> This is giving up a modicum of privacy in order to make the world safer for everybody.
How far will you go? Would you give up all privacy for safety? What if society's idea of safety doesn't align with yours?
It is no surprise that people like you still romanticize the notion of state violence and greater authoritarian power. Fascism is always popular amongst certain types.
Is our government getting increasingly Authoritarian and Repressive? Yes. Are we anywhere near fascism? Fucking no