4 ms·
Let's try to eliminate the equivocating, shall we? One the one hand, we have someone who was being threatened with being imprisoned for half his life, for doing
by npsimons 14y ago
Let's try to eliminate the equivocating, shall we? One the one hand, we have someone who was being threatened with being imprisoned for half his life, for doing something that couldn't have possibly merited that kind of retribution. On the other hand, we have a person being threatened with being removed from an position of power so that she (hopefully) can't abuse power over others again. She most likely will be able to get another job, and more importantly, won't have to live most of her life behind bars.
- ryguytilidie 14y agoYeah I love how people keep acting like "oh, his life was ruined so now you need to ruin hers?" NO, we need to make her not have the power to ruin more lives. If because of this, her and her millionaire husband manage to rationalize this as their lives being ruined while not caring about the kid's death they are responsible for than that really tells one everything they would need to know about the content of their character.
- mcantelon 14y agoHer losing her position would prevent her from having the power to ruin more lives, no?
- jlgreco 14y agoYes, I think that is what he was getting at.
- ryguytilidie 14y agoThat was my entire point.
- mcantelon 14y agoAh, I misread... apologies.
- numbsafari 14y agoI'm not referring to her losing her job. I'm referring to the threats of vigilante justice that seem to be going around, as mentioned by the linked article.
- AnthonyMouse 14y agoVigilante justice is what happens when actual justice is not available. If you don't like vigilante justice, ensure actual justice.
- tedunangst 14y agoFortunately everybody agrees as to what constitutes actual justice.
- numbsafari 14y agoIn a sense, that's exactly what Aaron was going for when he was attempting to download JSTORs articles in order to "liberate" them. Imagine if he had made open information one of the "Campaigns" at Demand Progress instead of getting caught up with the law? Even now, what was supposed to be the one issue that motivated Aaron to break the law isn't even listed as one of the Campaigns at Demand Progress: http://blog.demandprogress.org/campaigns http://blog.demandprogress.org/campaigns Where is JSTOR and PACER on that list? If you want to go and double down on his mistake, fine. Just don't expect a different response from the government when you do so. Or, perhaps, instead of promoting "vigilante justice", you could make a rational argument and campaign with your local representatives to get these overly generalized laws and overly punitives sentencing guidelines changed.
- AnthonyMouse 14y agoI am not promoting vigilante justice. I am merely pointing out what causes it.
- numbsafari 14y agoMaybe it's worth hearing Aaron's own words to understand the folly of attacking this one person: When you’re upset with someone, all you want to do is change the way they’re acting. But you can’t control what’s inside a person’s head. Yelling at them isn’t going to make them come around, it’s just going to make them more defiant, like the GM workers who keyed the cars they made. No, you can’t force other people to change. You can, however, change just about everything else. And usually, that’s enough. -- http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/nummi http://www.aaronsw.com/weblog/nummi You want to fix how she behaves. Instead, change everything else. Change the system she operated in. There's a way to do that without violence, either physical or "cyber".
- mpyne 14y agoHe was never in danger of being locked away for half his life even on the revised trumped-up charges. Please read http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5063435 http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5063435 as it's a well-sourced comment, unlike mine.