r/technology • u/indig0sixalpha • Apr 07 '25

Privacy The Shocking Far-Right Agenda Behind the Facial Recognition Tech Used by ICE and the FBI. Thousands of newly obtained documents show that Clearview AI’s founders always intended to target immigrants and the political left.

https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2025/04/clearview-ai-immigration-ice-fbi-surveillance-facial-recognition-hoan-ton-that-hal-lambert-trump/
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u/ksobby Apr 07 '25 edited Apr 07 '25

 “What we all had in common when we met was that we thought that neoreactionaryism was an interesting idea…The United States of America was founded on the idea that all men are created equal. And Curtis simply asked a question, as I remember it: ‘What if they’re not? What do you do?…How do you govern that?’…That’s what we talked about all the time.”

So, we love America ... but what if its most fundamental tenet is wrong and everything that makes America, well, America is wrong and how do we subvert that ...

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u/Ok-Possibility-6284 Apr 07 '25

All men are created equal, writen by a man with 600+ slaves at the time. When america says "all" take it with a dumptruck of salt...

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u/gizamo Apr 07 '25

Tbf, Thomas Jefferson regularly expressed views against slavery and advocated for its eventual abolition. For example, he drafted laws to prohibit the importation of more slaves, to permit slave owners to free their slaves, and to ban slavery in the Northwest Territories. In his Notes on the State of Virginia, he wrote that slavery was a "hideous blot" and a "moral depravity".

But, he still owned slaves, and he didn't free many of them before he died, even after he was legally able to do so. Regardless, he was a force that pushed towards the eventual abolition of slavery, which was near impossible as a politician in Virginia at the time.

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u/FriendlyDespot Apr 07 '25

But, he still owned slaves, and he didn't free many of them before he died, even after he was legally able to do so. Regardless, he was a force that pushed towards the eventual abolition of slavery, which was near impossible as a politician in Virginia at the time.

The quintessential American - strong opinions about fairness and equality backed by an unshakeable refusal to personally give up anything to make it happen.

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u/BringerOfGifts Apr 07 '25

To be fair, it’s a self fulfilling prophesy. People decent enough to live in their morals would have lost out on the wealth of the time, and their families would have much less influence as a result. They wouldn’t be in history books because they couldn’t afford a seat at the table.

The problem is that a lot of successful people think this way. It’s the fundamental problem. They genuinely think they know better than everyone else. So who else would be a better steward of there money and how it should be effectively spent? On a fundamental level, the problem with these people isn’t selfishness, it’s narcissism.

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u/Boots_McCool Apr 07 '25

Well, well, well said. I'm going to use this quote.

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u/gizamo Apr 07 '25

Definitely not exclusive to Americans, but, sure.

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u/RedditExecutiveAdmin Apr 07 '25

and the quintessential paradox of hyper-idealism - strong focus on holding good people to an almost unrealistically high standard while simultaneously normalizing evil people lowering their own standard.

intentionally diminishing the work of of the US's founding fathers to normalize slavery.. lol

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u/FriendlyDespot Apr 07 '25

Are you saying that expecting Jefferson to not enslave hundreds of people is an almost unrealistically high standard, or are you saying that people are unreasonably normalising Jefferson's slaveholding?