I'm not doing this mixing unintentionally -- I'm trying to sort out what you are trying to achieve in your response to the GP. The "appeal to mom" is, I agree,

I'm not doing this mixing unintentionally -- I'm trying to sort out what you are trying to achieve in your response to the GP. The "appeal to mom" is, I agree, a valid response to part of DickingAround's assertion. A fair amount of people do indeed, agree with "mom's opinion". However, I am attempting to disentangle your (presumably techno-capable, 20-30-40-something year old) apathy (distaste?) for HN's predominating views on surveillance ("echo chamber", "I'm not going to vote") from the opinion of people like your mother. Leaning on the opinion of middle-aged America so as to justify your apathy towards surveillance smacks of the easy way out when talking about tangled corporate and government interests.