4 ms·
Can you explain this position? If GitHub were funding their free teams product with revenue from, say, organized crime which is kidnapping children, would it be
by geofft 7y ago
Can you explain this position? If GitHub were funding their free teams product with revenue from, say, organized crime which is kidnapping children, would it be appropriate and on-topic to ask about that? But it's no longer appropriate when it's a government agency?
Is it just US government agencies, or would it be appropriate again to ask if the funding were coming from ISIS?
Also, is it generally the case that complaints about the NSA and their spying programs are off-topic for HN because they too are a US government agency? Or is that different?
- DennisAleynikov 7y agoorganized crime doesn't exist. governments are indeed allowed to commit organized crime as you said. if you want to overthrow or change that government you are free to do so. revenue obtained from that government is as bloodstained as any capitalist money, and most sources of profit can be dismissed as exploitive. its quite literally the point of profits. if github teams were funded by isis I literally would not change my opinion on github.
- hamandcheese 7y agoPresumably ICE buys light bulbs. Should we also call out light bulb manufacturers and distributors for “working with ICE”? It’s not about politics for me, but rather the viewpoint that companies shouldn’t be the moral police of their customers.
- geofft 7y agoI mean, I'm open to discussing whether we should or shouldn't, but I think it's not an off-topic discussion!
- DennisAleynikov 7y agopretty off topic to bring up customers of a lightbulb factory to shame them for selling headlamps to tanks...
- geofft 7y agoAll right, point taken - this is a politically incorrect discussion and we should be self-censoring ourselves.
- deleted 7y ago[deleted]
- euroq 7y agoNo, your comment just doesn't make sense. Lightbulb manufacturers are not responsible for wars because tanks have lightbulbs in them, and GitHub is not responsible for all the harm in the world either because some bad actors use GitHub.
- geofft 7y agoSorry, I can't even discuss this with you. I rather disagree - this is what the whole "military-industrial complex" is about - but it's off-topic and forbidden.
- jholman 7y agoThis is totally not what the "military-industrial complex" is about. Wow. The MIC concept is a specific application of the general idea of regulatory capture of policymakers to the vertical of defence contracting. This is nothing like that: the corporation here isn't a defence contractor and they're not bribing the government. It fits 0%.
- DagAgren 7y agoIf they do so directly, then yes, most certainly.