- Limiting Parole: A new law pushed by Louisiana Governor Jeff Landry cedes much of the power of the parole board to an algorithm that prevents thousands of prisoners from early release.
- Immutable Risk Score: The risk assessment tool, TIGER, does not take into account efforts prisoners make to rehabilitate themselves. Instead, it focuses on factors that cannot be changed.
- Racial Bias: Civil rights attorneys say the new law could disproportionately harm Black people in part because the algorithm measures factors where racial disparities already exist.
In fascism, the cruelty is the point. Using an algorithm to be cruel is an attempt to diffuse responsibility and dodge accountability. We can’t let society keep going this direction, but how to oppose the allure of cruelty?
Value life itself, and health.
Life and health are higher values than money. That’s where the need for public health insurance comes from. That’s where laws against murder etc. come from.
But you can’t take this understanding for granted anymore. You have to think about it, and teach, and learn, and promote, and discuss it everywhere in society.
Note that this does not depend on a political party. You are allowed :) to, and you actually should discuss values with people from both sides, and more.
But that is the entire point of responsibility diffusion. Everyone knows murder is wrong but what about 100 people each making 1% of the decisions that leads to a loss of life? What about 10000 each making 0.01%? At which point does an individual feel sufficiently detached from the consequences of their actions to make choices that would go beyond their own morals if responsibility was concentrated on them alone?
Cruelty is a major foundation of capitalism. There is probably no way to violently enforce the valuation of capital over people without cruelty.
If humanity wants to live in cruelty-free society or indeed continue living on a habitable planet, then capitalism needs to end.
“Our system has determined that you’re no longer eligible for support, as your submission of Form 792B was 0:56 late. Please resubmit your application at your earliest convenience, our clients are important to us, and your well-being is our top priority. We’re currently experiencing a high volume of document submission, and the processing time may take as long as 3 months. Please ensure that you have an adequate supply of life-sustaining medication during this time, as no other assistance will be available until completion of your file.”
A symptom of underfunded systems