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I think it's so weird to have so much negativity in HN comments towards Snowden. This guy should be our nerd hero. He was and he is risking his life, freedom an

I think it's so weird to have so much negativity in HN comments towards Snowden. This guy should be our nerd hero. He was and he is risking his life, freedom and assets for solely calling out the US agencies on illegal activities.

lisivka 10y ago
HN means "Hacker News", and hackers are smarter than average people, so deviation from average in comments is expected.
shit_parade2 10y ago
Mods silence and van accounts who support Snowden and denounce government surveillance.
creole99 10y ago
My first suspicion whenever I see such comments is that maybe they are coming from astroturfers. (A well documented problem on Reddit). The negative comments here are generally weak and naieve even when they include valid points i.e. focusing on the "too much operational info" argument, while usually avoiding acknowledgment of the "secret illegal undemocratic global surveillance" argument. But then I think astroturfing (or meta-astroturfing) would be way too obvious, and such a fact would inevitably be discovered and cause a loss in faith. But who can say anymore in this crazy anything-goes Internet. Nothing surprises me anymore, and thats what makes me sad. Or yeah, maybe they sadly are just real comments. Perhaps we need vettable National IDs behind our social media accounts so I can see which of you are shills, spies and/or robots :)
capote 10y ago
This isn't too much negativity (2 or 3 top-level comments that aren't even purely negative, but just questioning his heroism) and they were downvoted into the ground. Rest assured, HN is clearly pro-Snowden and doesn't question it. I'm not impressed by Snowden because I've seen worse than NSA surveillance (communist Romania, my grandfather was beaten to death in jail for having an anti-government journal) and I don't think the US can fall down such a slippery slope that we need to worry about it at the cost of security and massive irony. The formula that makes oppressive countries oppressive through surveillance just doesn't exist here. Not even close. Even by modern standards, we're not even in the same league as Russia and China in terms of oppression via surveillance. We should probably stop it at some point but it's not at the top of my priority list right now, and I'm not worried we're going to fall off some metaphorical cliff anytime soon. Anyway, to see Snowden in such a positive light requires thinking that stopping NSA surveillance is a top priority that should be done at any cost.

lisivka 10y ago

HN means "Hacker News", and hackers are smarter than average people, so deviation from average in comments is expected.

shit_parade2 10y ago

Mods silence and van accounts who support Snowden and denounce government surveillance.

creole99 10y ago

My first suspicion whenever I see such comments is that maybe they are coming from astroturfers. (A well documented problem on Reddit). The negative comments here are generally weak and naieve even when they include valid points i.e. focusing on the "too much operational info" argument, while usually avoiding acknowledgment of the "secret illegal undemocratic global surveillance" argument. But then I think astroturfing (or meta-astroturfing) would be way too obvious, and such a fact would inevitably be discovered and cause a loss in faith. But who can say anymore in this crazy anything-goes Internet. Nothing surprises me anymore, and thats what makes me sad. Or yeah, maybe they sadly are just real comments. Perhaps we need vettable National IDs behind our social media accounts so I can see which of you are shills, spies and/or robots :)

capote 10y ago

This isn't too much negativity (2 or 3 top-level comments that aren't even purely negative, but just questioning his heroism) and they were downvoted into the ground. Rest assured, HN is clearly pro-Snowden and doesn't question it. I'm not impressed by Snowden because I've seen worse than NSA surveillance (communist Romania, my grandfather was beaten to death in jail for having an anti-government journal) and I don't think the US can fall down such a slippery slope that we need to worry about it at the cost of security and massive irony. The formula that makes oppressive countries oppressive through surveillance just doesn't exist here. Not even close. Even by modern standards, we're not even in the same league as Russia and China in terms of oppression via surveillance. We should probably stop it at some point but it's not at the top of my priority list right now, and I'm not worried we're going to fall off some metaphorical cliff anytime soon. Anyway, to see Snowden in such a positive light requires thinking that stopping NSA surveillance is a top priority that should be done at any cost.