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But on the other hand trump is/was a danger to society and democracy. I'm happy the story was censored, given that it still seems like a non story (no real crim

But on the other hand trump is/was a danger to society and democracy. I'm happy the story was censored, given that it still seems like a non story (no real crime committed afaik) And I fully understand the issues with my statement, the hypocrisy of it and the slippery slope nature of the act, but I do think some extreme cases do require bending the rules.

wesleywt 4y ago
I totally agree. Seeing how damaged Russia is due to mass misinformation, it is amazing to see how HN commenters think that misinformation is not a big threat. Propaganda works if you give it an even footing as real news.
- colordrops 4y ago
  You do realize that they used misinformation to bury a true story about the laptop right?
  - myko 4y ago
    No, this is not what happened. The only true part of the story is that a laptop exists. There is evidence that the hard drives were manipulated on it. There's no evidence Hunter put any of the data on the hard drive there. And beyond all that, nothing there shows Joe Biden did anything wrong. Even the guy who _found_ the laptop doesn't think the information on it is necessarily legitimate: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/12/now-warning-about-hunter-biden-laptop-disinfo-guy-who-leaked-it/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/12/now-warni...
    - colordrops 4y ago
      No, the NYT, FBI and analysts admit that the emails on the laptop were authentic. Please don't spread misinformation. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden_laptop_controversy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden_laptop_controve... https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/us/politics/hunter-biden-laptop.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/us/politics/hunter-biden-...
      - myko 4y ago
        Actually, you're the one spreading misinformation. I would ask you to stop. Please revisit your own sources, they say "some files" were authentic, meaning not all were authenticated. My source is 2 years newer than yours and confirms that the laptop contents were handled and modified by multiple people over the course of several years. Additionally from your source: "An analysis by Distributed Denial of Secrets of 128,755 emails allegedly copied from the laptop and circulated by allies and former staff of President Donald Trump showed "signs of tampering" including 145 modification dates and emails created more than a year after Hunter Biden allegedly had the laptop." Here is a quote from the source I posted earlier: “[An expert] also found records on the drive that indicated someone may have accessed the drive from a West Coast location in October 2020, little more than a week after the first New York Post stories on Hunter Biden’s laptop appeared.” “Over the next few days, somebody created three additional folders on the drive, titled, ‘Mail,' ‘Salacious Pics Package’ and ‘Big Guy File’ — an apparent reference to Joe Biden.” ... In other words, Mac Isaac [note: the guy who was given the laptop] says that he has seen claims about what the laptop contains that don’t actually reflect what he saw on the laptop at the outset.
woojoo666 4y ago
You can dislike trump and still see the issue with 3 corporations (facebook, google, twitter) having such enormous political power
- mupuff1234 4y ago
  Sure. But at the same time the story did come out, and most people in the US were exposed to it in some way, it just wasn't amplified to oblivion. So it's not like social media had total censorship power here. If anything, I think the lesson is that social media should be handicapped before elections for all stories.
psyc 4y ago
We should just have the government switch between corrupt and not corrupt on a case by case basis. It’s the only way to avoid democratically electing the wrong people.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]
onos 4y ago
I think this is one of the most honest takes here from a person supporting what happened, and so appreciate this comment. I don’t agree this event was justified. Further I think it caused a lot of damage to our country by very significantly lessening institutional and societal trust: fairness of elections (not questioning here the actual vote counting, but the seemingly-partisan silencing of damaging info on one favored candidate), whether politically biased individuals can be trusted to treat those in other camps honestly and fairly.

wesleywt 4y ago

I totally agree. Seeing how damaged Russia is due to mass misinformation, it is amazing to see how HN commenters think that misinformation is not a big threat. Propaganda works if you give it an even footing as real news.

colordrops 4y ago
You do realize that they used misinformation to bury a true story about the laptop right?
- myko 4y ago
  No, this is not what happened. The only true part of the story is that a laptop exists. There is evidence that the hard drives were manipulated on it. There's no evidence Hunter put any of the data on the hard drive there. And beyond all that, nothing there shows Joe Biden did anything wrong. Even the guy who _found_ the laptop doesn't think the information on it is necessarily legitimate: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/12/now-warning-about-hunter-biden-laptop-disinfo-guy-who-leaked-it/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2022/04/12/now-warni...
  - colordrops 4y ago
    No, the NYT, FBI and analysts admit that the emails on the laptop were authentic. Please don't spread misinformation. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden_laptop_controversy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hunter_Biden_laptop_controve... https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/us/politics/hunter-biden-laptop.html https://www.nytimes.com/2020/10/22/us/politics/hunter-biden-...
    - myko 4y ago
      Actually, you're the one spreading misinformation. I would ask you to stop. Please revisit your own sources, they say "some files" were authentic, meaning not all were authenticated. My source is 2 years newer than yours and confirms that the laptop contents were handled and modified by multiple people over the course of several years. Additionally from your source: "An analysis by Distributed Denial of Secrets of 128,755 emails allegedly copied from the laptop and circulated by allies and former staff of President Donald Trump showed "signs of tampering" including 145 modification dates and emails created more than a year after Hunter Biden allegedly had the laptop." Here is a quote from the source I posted earlier: “[An expert] also found records on the drive that indicated someone may have accessed the drive from a West Coast location in October 2020, little more than a week after the first New York Post stories on Hunter Biden’s laptop appeared.” “Over the next few days, somebody created three additional folders on the drive, titled, ‘Mail,' ‘Salacious Pics Package’ and ‘Big Guy File’ — an apparent reference to Joe Biden.” ... In other words, Mac Isaac [note: the guy who was given the laptop] says that he has seen claims about what the laptop contains that don’t actually reflect what he saw on the laptop at the outset.

woojoo666 4y ago

You can dislike trump and still see the issue with 3 corporations (facebook, google, twitter) having such enormous political power

mupuff1234 4y ago
Sure. But at the same time the story did come out, and most people in the US were exposed to it in some way, it just wasn't amplified to oblivion. So it's not like social media had total censorship power here. If anything, I think the lesson is that social media should be handicapped before elections for all stories.

psyc 4y ago

We should just have the government switch between corrupt and not corrupt on a case by case basis. It’s the only way to avoid democratically electing the wrong people.

deleted 4y ago
[deleted]

onos 4y ago

I think this is one of the most honest takes here from a person supporting what happened, and so appreciate this comment. I don’t agree this event was justified. Further I think it caused a lot of damage to our country by very significantly lessening institutional and societal trust: fairness of elections (not questioning here the actual vote counting, but the seemingly-partisan silencing of damaging info on one favored candidate), whether politically biased individuals can be trusted to treat those in other camps honestly and fairly.