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But then you only elect politicians who don't care about privacy. I'm not sure those are the people I want crafting policy.


Selection pressure sure, but obviously worth it. Public servants work for us and we should be able to see what they're up to.


Is that how you want your employer to behave? You want them to surveil you all day every day in case you are doing something that is counter to their business?


How is that related?


How is someone saying that public servants work for them different from that same person working for a private employer?????


What? The public/private distinction? How is that confusing? It's literally in the name.


They're employees just like you and me, complaining that they work for you then refusing to allow the same rule to be applied to yourself by your employer is....


The difference is one works for the public on public dollars and the other works for a private entity.

Your mistake is thinking public and private are the same.


No. The difference is you thinking that you, as the employer, have the right to surveil people, but then claim that you, as an employee, have the right to be free from such horrific conditions.

There's no other explanation.


For one, in this analogy, we (the "employers") have no power but the "employee" (the government) has the power of the law and the power of the guns.

In a private company the employer has the power over the employees.


We do not employ public servants. The government, which governs with our consent, does. They are paid with our tax money, but we do not employ them.

Working for the government and wielding power over the general public is a privilege and comes with higher expectations than a private employee.


...normal and internally consistent because we do different jobs in different contexts and the impacts of oversight have a different cost/benefit analysis, do you think doctors should have the same oversight as your food delivery guy?


No. Hypocrisy is when you refuse to have the same rules applied to yourself.

The claim was that they worked for you therefore they should be subject to constant surveillance. Submit to the same from your employer to prove that that is a reasonable expectation.


It would be hypocrisy if the person you're replying to was a public sector worker who didn't want to be open.


No - it's hypocrisy for anyone to demand one set of rules for others whilst demanding that those same rules do not apply to themselves.

People in politics, as I said from the beginning, are still people. We can demand transparency in the decisions made (there are limits, because some of that information is sensitive - eg. National security, or commercial secrecy) but we cannot demand that people are surveiled every minute of their lives whilst at the same time complaining that it's a bad thing to happen to us.


> we cannot demand that people are surveilled every minute of their lives whilst at the same time complaining that it's a bad thing to happen to us.

Well, those in power should be held to a higher standard in various ways, and it is tricky. Someone who works on a pharma regulatory board who then the next year gets a gloriously-salaried job at Pfizer should probably not have been able to do that, even though for most people a job at Pfizer would be fine.




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