4 ms·
You gotta hand it to Wikileaks, they've got balls. But I'm afraid it's all going to be for naught. Nobody likes to be told, let alone admit, their government/
by dstein 16y ago
You gotta hand it to Wikileaks, they've got balls. But I'm afraid it's all going to be for naught. Nobody likes to be told, let alone admit, their government/banks/military is corrupt. No good will come from any of this because the average person really doesn't give a damn.
- ergo98 16y agoNobody likes to be told, let alone admit, their government/banks/military is corrupt. No good will come from any of this because the average person really doesn't give a damn. Then....why is this wikileaks business a front-page headlining story pretty much everywhere? Doesn't that completely counter your claim? Further, the only reason people might not want to be told is that they already long knew it. Wikileaks hopefully has something pretty salacious to keep the interest, because thus far the response has been "Wow....is that it? I suspected much worse."
- ThomPete 16y agoIt's a frontpage story because they did what most journalists would never dare doing.
- dstein 16y agoThen....why is this wikileaks business a front-page headlining story pretty much everywhere? Doesn't that completely counter your claim? Just because "its on the news" doesn't prove that anybody gives damn. I don't see citizens rallying in favor of Wikileaks and calling for the overthrow of the US government.
- ergo98 16y agoThe news prints what people want to read about. It's a supply/demand industry. However what in the leaks demand that people call for the overthrow of the US government? Thus far it has been entirely predictable, tame, boring cables from individual offices and subjective interpretations. BFD. Seriously, BFD. It's like reading a diary, and that's what's interesting, but there has been nothing that is unexpected.
- hnal943 16y agoExcept when the world reads this diary, spies will be discovered, people will die and other countries will refuse to cooperate with the United States.
- ekanes 16y agoThe leaks have been on the home page of the NY Times for days.
- wnoise 16y agoA carefully selected small subset of the leaks have been on the home page of the NY Times for days.
- lhnz 16y agoI don't think it's really about convincing people of anything, RE Assange himself: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1955559 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1955559 It's about creating an atmosphere which makes the secrecy needed for conspiracy and in turn corruption, difficult or impossible to attain effectively and without doubt. This will cause the systems of government that rely on this to change themselves or become too susceptible to attack from other more transparent governments. I see no reason this won't happen, too: the doors have been opened to this kind of activity and it will only get worse for them. They can either become more authoritative and risk unrest, even more secretive (at a detriment to their ability to operate efficiently) or they will be forced to become more open.
- hnal943 16y agoWho says anyone is corrupt? I don't understand why having classified information automatically makes you corrupt.
- mrj 16y agoI don't know about that, a popular past-time here is complaining about all the various ways government is screwed up/stomping our rights/doing something stupid/etc. It's what normal people talk about over beers instead of emacs vs vi.