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  • Barbarian
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    4 months ago

    It’s actually a bit deeper than that, at least from my Romanian perspective. Our old ladies were literally hired by our security services to monitor and report on everything going on in their neighbourhoods. They were essentially human CCTVs, facial recognition and behavioural pattern matchers all rolled into one while being paid pennies.

      • Barbarian
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        4 months ago

        Deadly serious. By the end of communism, they had over a million informants. You had to make the assumption that everyone you talked to and every old lady on a park bench was an informant.

        Funny story, I know someone who was recruited to inform on her colleagues at work, but after the third time in a row she told them everything is wonderful, everyone is happy and productive, she was promptly fired (as an informant, not from the factory).