That isn’t kafkaesque, that’s just authoritarian.
https://www.londonsecuritycollege.co.uk/wrongly-accused-of-stealing/
Sounds like they have a case.
This will ultimately be the death of retail stores.
Half the reason anyone wants to go to a store in 2026 is to have a good time shopping in person. If going to the store leads to any chance of a shitty experience? Fuck it dude, I’ll just order online like everyone else I suppose.
These days, stores are for last minute purchases. If I think of something I need, I order it, and then wait for it to show up. I’m not interested in wandering around Walmart.
I guess the stock boys and cashiers could just be like the olden groceries, where you bring your list and they fill it? Or, I guess more layoffs?
Walmart already does this with pick up orders I see as many Walmart employees with carts running around as I do regular customers.
The world would be dramatically better if about 10,000 specific people died
It’s so weird how little it takes to ruin a society
They were propped up by like 50 million lesser evils, looking after their own interests.
Yes, they are a power of their own now.
But still…
More will replace those fucks. The system is flawed.
Self Checkouts are not even self checkout anymore. You go up and scan your stuff then 2 times out of 3 someone has to come over and approve that you scanned everything. At that point just open the normal lanes back up
And the supermarket systems still don’t get right the prices for fruits. Which means you have to call another employee to enter the price for you.
I’ve walked out of Walmart before over wrong prices. I was just there to look at the camping section and see if they had any deals. There was a cooler on sale for 10$. I go scan it. 30$. I just left it there at the self checkout and went home.
9 times out of 10 if you ask the attendant for help they’ll honor the price if there was a signage error.
I know but it’s walmart. The attendant is handling 30+ self checkouts and I’m not waiting 10 minutes.
I literally stopped shopping at Kroger over this. If you’re gonna accuse me of stealing every third item I scan because I use a reusable shopping bag instead of the single-use plastic ones, you aren’t getting my business.
I think the only one more over it than me was the poor associate who had to keep signing in to watch videos of me scanning stuff.
Sorry Mr Ed, won’t happen again sir. Please do not Gatling Gun me.
It’s so annoying. I’ll scan something big and the computer is OUT LOUD saying at me “BAG YOUR ITEM” like NO! I DONT WANT TO!
What is wild about all this is looking back to the old social contract and how it basically made this
fobittedforbidden.The best example is the movie minority report in which the had a fool proof way to 100% of the time predict the future.
I won’t spoil the movie, but the whole premise was that even if there was one instance of it making a mistake, and a innocent person was put on ice by mistake, then the whole thing had to be shut down.
And in today’s reality: all of big tech’s new tools make mistakes constantly, sometimes more than getting things right, and it’s still full steam ahead on the rollout.
MFW dystopia movies were too optimistic
I mean, even in that one case, it was accurate, just not in the way they thought.
kill the fuckers in charge or you’re rolling the
dicechamber every day.Same can be said for the death penalty, but the GOP and even a lot of Democrats are for it. Even though they’re are actual past cases of killing innocent people.
fobitted
I’m sure this is a typo of some kind, but I can’t for the life of me work out what it was.“Predicted”? “Foretold”? I’m sure I’m being dense and just missing something obvious, but I’d love to hear what.
Kafkaesque nightmares
I gotta read something besides The Metamorphasis because all I associate with that phrase is physical body horror of becoming a bug. Somehow I don’t think that’s what they meant here.
Kafka was most famous for pointing out that our current society is built on bureaucracy unto death. For instance how he have to fill out insurance forms while dying of cancer.
Kafka has written other stories, the author might have had The Trial (Der Process) in mind.
Pick something other than The Castle, especially if you’ve ever worked for any government.
Unless you want to know why Curtis Yarvin is wrong about monarchies being more efficient, then by all means…
You write just one book about a labyrinthine bureacracy and people use your name to curse organisational dysfunction forever.
A situations like this makes me use a form of Malapropism one would expect of a Dickensian society to bring about almost Orwellian situation. Makes you wonder when someone will use Chekhov’s Gun before it all gets Bowdlerized. Alas this Machiavellian paragraph is reminiscent of a Lovecraftian creature.
But seriously, that paragraph above reads like the scene in Blackadder when they meet the writer of the Dictionary.
Poor Machiavelli too. Everyone goes on about how he faked his death and “dark triad” traits, and he was just some bloke taking the piss out of the government.
I think that guy might have been trolling. He was imprisoned by the Medici family, amd then ended up writing a book to give advice to the princes? I think it could have been intentionally bad advice, especially after reading Sun Tsu.
I’m actually wandering if what he wrote in his book wasn’t exactly what the Prince already did.
Because that sounds just like the greatest way to arse kiss a powerful person without being too crude and obvious, in order to get yourself a rich patron.
What would Machiavelli do? is a fine continuation of that energy.
If he was here today? I’m sure he’d kick an ass or two - that’s what Machiavelli would do!
“As the Prince you’ve got to know when to hold ‘em. Know even to fold ‘em. Know when to walk away and know when to run.”
Not a bug.
You’d think getting it easier to exchange money for items is the whole point of capitalism
I worked at my local Goodwill (they’re split up by region). We kept a close eye on known shoplifters, but we couldn’t say anything and even my boss couldn’t say anything unless he literally saw them conceal the object then walk out of the store and never broke eye contact. They said the store could get sued if we stopped them and they had ditched the contraband in the moment we looked away.
I don’t see why the stores discussed here should be treated differently. Someone needs to sue these surveillance stores until they stop automating false accusations.
The AI gets to accuse you based on a bad guess, while you have to file paperwork and surrender more personal data to prove you didn’t steal a pack of vitamins. »Innocent until proven guilty« is now a premium feature.
Innocent until proven guilty was always the highest tier wealthy only premium. Everyone else is expected to plea bargain down to a crime they didn’t commit.
if you’re a billionaire you can be proven guilty and still be considered innocent
A false accusation of theft is literally Libel.
So anybody rich enough or who is a Lawyer or Judge can easilly take them to Court for it and win compensation.
As with most nasty things, it’s only done to the riff-raff, not the upper-middle and upper class.
Innocent even proven guilty
When I worked at Lowe’s they could tell the instant shoplifters pulled into the parking lot. They even had nicknames for the repeat offenders.
“Heads up, Dumb and Dumber just pulled in, no doubt headed for lumber.”
How does one shoplift lumber?
The nickname wasn’t because it rhymes. Because it doesn’t.
Put it in your pants and claim you just have wood.
I’m so proud to say I have first hand experience: very quickly.
Casually
Only the dumb, obvious ones.
I assure you, I’ve shoplifted quite a bit from Lowes without ever drawing suspicion.
You might be surprised at what they know! Dumb and Dumber above have no idea they’re targeted. Small timers won’t catch any heat as training is to let it slide above all. We had tips on how to “confront” shoplifters without actually saying anything.
Well, I never got ‘confronted’ at least.
That you know of. Some places wait until you hit felony level totals, then inform the police.
I usually go for pretty small stuff. Statute of limitations will probably run out before I rack up enough to hit felony level.
“What are you in for?”
“Felony bubble gum theft…”Lol fair enough
“Bit off more than you could chew, eh? Still, I like your gumption. I could use a man of your talents… And perhaps you could use a bit of ‘job security’, once you’re out of here. ‘Who’s asking’? Well, son, you’re looking at the mastermind behind the Great Maple Syrup Heist. That’s right. It was almost perfect, but as you can see, things got sticky in the end. But this next job will be different. You got your start stealing candy from babies, just like everybody else, didn’t you? Well, imagine stealing the candy before the baby even got it! Uh huh. So… I may or may not have come into possession of reliable intel about the Easter Bunny’s secret stash… We’re talking enough chocolate here to make each of us billionaires, once it’s melted down, and minted into fresh, clean, completely untraceable chocolate coins. So, what do you say… are you in?”
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I’ve gotten so many loose bolts and washers just laying around on the floor in the small parts section. I almost want to tell them to pay me for cleaning up their trash. Can’t say I’ve ever made off with lumber though.
Same with the LEGO isle in Wal-Mart.
This is a great way for people to lesen how this technology can be used negatively. Get the backlash early before it has completely infected everything.
Someone must have been telling lies aboutSome slop machine must have misidentified Josef K., he knew he had done nothing wrong but, one morning, he was arrested.False accusation isn’t a crime over there?
What a shitty place!False accusation is one of the more difficult things to write laws for, because it’s very difficult to prove. IE the problem is defining honest reasonable suspicions from blatent attacks… and differentiating cannot prove it from proven innocent. Perhaps in shoplifting I don’t care, but in other aspects of life, say rape or violence that I actually do care about. We don’t want someone to not report serious crimes because if they can’t prove beyond reasonable doubt the person is guilty, they open themselves up to the law swinging the other way. So it can’t directly be provably guilty that makes the line, which then goes to intent. Is the accuser making a reasonable claim that merits opening an investigation, or maliciously getting it wrong on purpose, which is almost impossible to prove one way or the other beyond them being dumb enough to brag about it on social media.
No, but if a private corporation accuses me of shoplifting, bisrmirching my good name, you better believe I’m going to sue for libel.
You’re thinking of libel. Liable means legally responsible. If you win your libel case, the defendant will be liable for the damages.
Sorry to do this to you twice, but you can embed the gif directly in the comments using markdown like this: 
Which then renders like this
Good to know, always wondered how people did it. I’ll never remember, but thanks 😂
I bet you are forbidden from doing so. Because fuck you (and me, and us all,) that’s why. They have nothing but contempt for working people in politics and corporate american leadership. And the courts, and lawyers, to say nothing of all the prosecuting attorneys, that wouldn’t piss on one of us if we were on fire.
Nah, we still have some rights in the UK.
No face sitting porn though, RIP
Says the guy that doesn’t get a jury trial anymore if facing a year in prison, and soon 3 years, decided by a magistrate? That just made a masterbaitorbase to record every web page you ever considered whacking off to? That instituted age control and is now recording every single thing you have said or done?
You guys are worse off than here in the US, bro. You just have a mealy mouthed controlled opposition in power rather than a blowhard troll king so you must not notice it.
But no, by the way, on the cameras, what I said is correct, the entire city of london has been covered by cctv cameras for over 20 years. The entire thing, and it’s getting worse you can be sure. That was in the NYTimes, back before I left them over Israel.
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Jury changes scrapped
Internet access changes deserve all the scorn you can throw at it but it’s not how you’re representing it - it’s supposedly forced proof of ID - the current implementation is utterly failing though as the govt has admitted (and I can assure you I have not given my ID to anyone yet)
Your last point however is correct - London is covered in cameras, the only real difference is unlike the flock and etc shenanigans it is not YET hooked up to AI (edit and face /number plate recognition)- but they most certainly are working on it (edit they trialled facial recognition cameras on the tube and it was an utter failure)
It’s not worse than the US, not even close, but it is awful in different ways
The tories scrapped the jury trials for up to one year in prison in 2020, so that part isn’t scrapped presumably. The birthplace of modern liberty, cancelling it without a goddamned fight.
Also, they basically cancelled the right to protest, if disfavoured by the politcians. Plus falsley proscribing groups as terrorists based on politicians’ say so. Plus a bunch of other stuff.
I appreciate the links, especially about the scrapping of these jury trial changes from 1 year to 3 years in prison soley decided by the UK’s famously haughty and aristocratic cuntish old boys club that is it’s legal system.
But I must disagree, the UK is further into fascism than the US. You blokes just don’t realize it, for aforementioned reasons. Although reasonable people could disagree on a which is worse off.
I think the US will surpass the UK in getting worse in most ways soon-ish, and we already are worse in many ways, healthcare, business running amok, drug prices, less protections and regulations all around to protect us and more faithess enforcements. Still though.
None of which means I can’t sue home bargains in small claims court for libel.
This is actually trivial. Corporations and authorities have massive resources expertise and time. Private individuals have none of these things so you favor the small fry in every interaction.
You only punish false reports by individuals which are obviously proven malicious and knowingly false while you screw companies and authorities to the wall for the slightest lack of due diligence.
Should have known that the person who you put through the wringer was innocent because they live in a different state and only vaguely look like the person in bad cctv but ai told you it was them 5 million from both company and gov and principals on both sides get fired and on the government side bannied from any gov job.
You can trivially treat both classes differently and get the desired result
False accusation is one of the more difficult things to write laws for, because it’s very difficult to prove.
But you make it unnecessarily difficult by mixing up the definition itself and the questions of proof.
False accusation is a crime. But part of their contracts will absolve them of that liability, and of civil liability if possible, you can be sure. Not that they would enforce it if not.
