Share this page!

Omar Wasow Profile picture
Twitter logo
27 Feb, 4 tweets, 2 min read
People talk a lot about the threat of surveillance capitalism. The remarkable research in this thread highlights another threat: massive private data collection used as a tool of control by a surveillance state.
”Federal laws regulate how agencies can use Americans’ personal information, but they do not cover private databases, and federal law enforcement has increasingly turned to them for information it otherwise isn’t allowed to collect without a court order.” washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
”Customs and Border Protection uses cellphone location data without warrants to track people inside the country. The data is gathered through a mix of weather, gaming and other apps, then bundled and resold to marketers and federal agencies.” washingtonpost.com/technology/202…
”A 2018 Supreme Court ruling that found commercial data searches should require a warrant. Lawyers for the IRS and other agencies have argued that they had not needed a warrant because phone users had ‘voluntarily granted access’ to the data-sharing apps.” washingtonpost.com/technology/202…

• • •

Missing some Tweet in this thread? You can try to force a refresh
　

Keep Current with Omar Wasow

Omar Wasow Profile picture

Stay in touch and get notified when new unrolls are available from this author!

Read all threads

This Thread may be Removed Anytime!

PDF

Twitter may remove this content at anytime! Save it as PDF for later use!

Try unrolling a thread yourself!

how to unroll video
  1. Follow @ThreadReaderApp to mention us!

  2. From a Twitter thread mention us with a keyword "unroll"
@threadreaderapp unroll

Practice here first or read more on our help page!

More from @owasow

Omar Wasow Profile picture
10 Feb
”Economic anxiety” arguments haven’t held up well but this is noteworthy: ”The group’s bankruptcy rate — 18% —was nearly twice as high as US public. A quarter of them had been sued for money owed to a creditor. And 1 in 5 of them faced losing their home…” washingtonpost.com/business/2021/…
”Nearly 60% of people facing charges related to Capitol riot showed signs of prior money troubles, including bankruptcies, notices of eviction or foreclosure, bad debts, or unpaid taxes over past two decades according to an analysis of 125 defendants…” washingtonpost.com/business/2021/…
Private jet lady? ”Ryan had struggled financially for years. She was still paying off a $37,000 lien for unpaid federal taxes. She’d nearly lost her home to foreclosure before that. She filed for bankruptcy in 2012 and faced another IRS tax lien in 2010.” washingtonpost.com/business/2021/…
Read 8 tweets
Omar Wasow Profile picture
8 Feb
”We are now potentially dealing with a problem of *mass radicalization*. We’re not talking about the case of a few people that got themselves caught up in an extremist milieu and then radicalized. We’re potentially talking about millions of people.” npr.org/2021/02/08/964…
One response to this tweet a few days ago was to dismiss the idea of ”mass radicalization.” Yes, it’s unlikely millions of citizens are going to engage in violent insurrection against the US. That definition is too narrow, though. Radicalization isn’t just about violence.
In any movement, people who commit violence will tend be a small percentage of the group. That in no way precludes millions from sharing a radical ideology, endorsing violent tactics, using violent rhetoric, dehumanizing outgroups and working to undermine democratic institutions.
Read 13 tweets
Omar Wasow Profile picture
7 Feb
”Microhousing allows people to live in places they’d otherwise be priced out of; but Seattle’s policies thwart this low-cost home type.” The city has mostly ”killed off congregate housing as a source of more affordable market-rate homes.” sightline.org/2021/02/04/whe… via @danbertolet
It’s not just Seattle that uses zoning regulations to restrict access to affordable, market rate microhousing. Los Angeles could benefit enormously from better zoning policy, too. See this thread summarizing a paper on the benefits of micro-units for LA.
We can do better. “Tokyo saw construction of 145,000 new housing units started in 2018—more than NY, LA, Houston & Boston combined. Nationally, Japan has managed to add close to same amount of new housing as US, despite having about half the population.” reason.com/2019/04/02/nim…
Read 7 tweets
Omar Wasow Profile picture
6 Feb
Talking about racism is not the same as saying something racist. The meaning and power of statements also depends on their content, context and intentions of the speaker. Patterns matter, too. There may be more here than we know but, by those criteria, this is not proportionate.
A decade ago Harry Reid was in hot water for saying Sen. Barack Obama had better chances of winning the presidency because he was “light-skinned” and didn't speak with a ”Negro dialect.” Then as now, I argued for looking at content, context and intention. theroot.com/why-michael-st…
Reid’s language was archaic but the substance of his statement was White voters have biases that favor Black candidates who look & talk more like White people. First, this is *describing* racism, not endorsing it. Second, social science shows he was right. theroot.com/was-harry-reid…
Read 5 tweets
Omar Wasow Profile picture
30 Jan
Striking how the outside-the-system vigilante wing of the far-right are being arrested and charged with serious crimes while inside-the-system elected officials who encouraged vigilante violence are living their best lives & have faced almost no social or political consequences.
What’s the professional price for endorsing violence against your political opponents and calling deadly school shootings ”‘false-flag’ operations”? A seat on the House education committee and continued support from many big donors. georgiarecorder.com/2021/01/28/big…
Drawing on research by @daschloz & @sam_rosenfeld, @ThePlumLineGS notes ”the GOP and conservative movement have allowed the boundary between fringe and mainstream to remain ‘porous’ going back through Joe McCarthy’s anti-communist crusades in the 1950s.” washingtonpost.com/opinions/2021/…
Read 9 tweets
Omar Wasow Profile picture
28 Jan
”Observers commented on the jarring mixture of symbols: Christian crosses & Jesus Saves banners, Trump flags & American flags, fascist insignia & ‘Camp Auschwitz’. Some saw apples & oranges. But it was really a fruit cocktail: White Christian Nationalism.” nytimes.com/2021/01/28/opi…
What distinguishes Christian nationalism from traditional doctrine? ”Christian nationalists use a language of blood and apocalypse. They talk about blood conquest, blood sacrifice, and blood belonging, and also about cosmic battles between good and evil.” nytimes.com/2021/01/28/opi…
The American version of civil religion ”draws on the social justice tradition of Hebrew prophets, and the civic republican tradition… This tradition sees Christianity and democracy as potentially complementary, rather than inherently opposed.” nytimes.com/2021/01/28/opi…
Read 6 tweets

Did Thread Reader help you today?

Support us! We are indie developers!

This site is made by just two indie developers on a laptop doing marketing, support and development! Read more about the story.

Become a Premium Member ($3/month or $30/year) and get exclusive features!

Become Premium

Too expensive? Make a small donation by buying us coffee ($5) or help with server cost ($10)

Donate via Paypal Become our Patreon

Thank you for your support!

Follow Us on Twitter!

Like this author's thread?

Get emails when @owasow has new unrolls!

Check out other threads from @owasow!

Read all threads by @owasow