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You are so off base and jumping right into some political rant. The article has nothing to do with politics and is talking about Amazon. If you want to discuss

by wil421 8y ago

You are so off base and jumping right into some political rant. The article has nothing to do with politics and is talking about Amazon. If you want to discuss those topics I suggest you submit articles about those topics. Or even write a blog or do a YouTube video about it. This is what separates us from Reddit. From the HN guidelines: >Eschew flamebait. Don't introduce flamewar topics unless you have something genuinely new to say. Avoid unrelated controversies and generic tangents.

bitwize 8y ago
"Keeping politics out of it" may have worked in the 90s or 2000s. But we know that the Russians are conducting extensive cyber ops in the USA, have compromised systems with access to sensitive data in the USA and globally, and are trying to influence, and likely have influenced, US elections. So yes, THERE IS A VERY RELEVANT CONNECTION between data harvesting by big tech and the current occupant of the White House. It's kind of like Godwin's law. It was relevant in an era when Nazism was a discredited relic of the past. But actual Nazis have turned into a powerful political force in the United States, thanks in part to toxic internet culture, and we do ourselves a profound disservice to forbid talking about them for what they are. Accordingly, Godwin's Law is no longer relevant.
spaceheretostay 8y ago
I did not give a "political rant". I gave a run-on sentence (for effect) factual description of why privacy is a societal concern above and beyond personal concerns. I did that with historical listing of events. I am not injecting opinion or ranting, but providing needed context to demonstrate why the parent comment was incorrect - and dangerously so. Also, the topic I wrote about was introduced by the comment above mine, not my doing at all. Stating that nothing bad has come from a lack of care about privacy is an inherently extremely political topic, given that our current government was installed in part due to this exact cause. If you don't want politics on HN then you don't want HN to exist - politics is inside everything and drives most of the decisions that affect HN user's lives and their work. Talking about startups and hacking culture will always - by definition - be political. To ignore the politics of a situation is to invite totalitarian, fascist rule by specifically catering to them via choosing to ignore their lawbreaking even when it is on-topic in an HN thread, just like this one is.

by wil421 8y ago

bitwize 8y ago

"Keeping politics out of it" may have worked in the 90s or 2000s. But we know that the Russians are conducting extensive cyber ops in the USA, have compromised systems with access to sensitive data in the USA and globally, and are trying to influence, and likely have influenced, US elections. So yes, THERE IS A VERY RELEVANT CONNECTION between data harvesting by big tech and the current occupant of the White House. It's kind of like Godwin's law. It was relevant in an era when Nazism was a discredited relic of the past. But actual Nazis have turned into a powerful political force in the United States, thanks in part to toxic internet culture, and we do ourselves a profound disservice to forbid talking about them for what they are. Accordingly, Godwin's Law is no longer relevant.

spaceheretostay 8y ago

I did not give a "political rant". I gave a run-on sentence (for effect) factual description of why privacy is a societal concern above and beyond personal concerns. I did that with historical listing of events. I am not injecting opinion or ranting, but providing needed context to demonstrate why the parent comment was incorrect - and dangerously so. Also, the topic I wrote about was introduced by the comment above mine, not my doing at all. Stating that nothing bad has come from a lack of care about privacy is an inherently extremely political topic, given that our current government was installed in part due to this exact cause. If you don't want politics on HN then you don't want HN to exist - politics is inside everything and drives most of the decisions that affect HN user's lives and their work. Talking about startups and hacking culture will always - by definition - be political. To ignore the politics of a situation is to invite totalitarian, fascist rule by specifically catering to them via choosing to ignore their lawbreaking even when it is on-topic in an HN thread, just like this one is.