3 ms·

Wait, what? How is this racist? If the story said 'All Chinese are hackers', that would be racist. If the story said, which it did, 'A person who lives and work

by druiid 14y ago

Wait, what? How is this racist? If the story said 'All Chinese are hackers', that would be racist. If the story said, which it did, 'A person who lives and works in China for the government spy academy is a hacker', that is not racist. Edit: Trolling troll is a troll. I 'knew' it was a troll account, but looked just now to be sure... created 34 minutes ago :P.

alanctgardner2 14y ago
Just a comment, you meant "who", not "whom".
- druiid 14y ago
  Indeed. Thanks for calling out my grammar mistake so early in the morning ;).
rikacomet 14y ago
It is indeed racist in a minor manner. You see, we all have become adept to such a way of journalism. you ask how? Well, going by common sense identifying where a hacker is based, if he is not working for the government, is of no use. Do I care if the hacker, who hacked my gmail account on his accord was Indian or Chinese or even American? No I don't. But, alternatively, I would only want to know if they are state sponsored. So it is assumed always, not just in terms of hacking, but also other criminal acts, like say terrorism. Saying " A Muslim Terrorist " is of no use, and create un-necessary delusion and association between the words 'muslim' and 'terrorist'. Which could have been avoided otherwise by saying 'a Terrorist', because the fact is that a terrorist is a terrorist. But the thing is, we have been hotwired like this for years, we want such unnecessary associations, which we can see through 'most' of the times (but not always, say when we experience something similar nearby). In simple words you can say, we are used to letting journalist screw with our mind with. 'American Fraudster''Muslim Terrorist' 'Chinese Hacker' 'Japanese Pedophile' 'Hindu Extremist' Pick a newspaper up some odd day, and you will find a lot of them. PS: Indeed my reasons to call such articles 'slightly racist' are perhaps different for why the original poster said it was 'racist'.
- druiid 14y ago
  You can make those associations in other contexts and I would fully agree with what you said here. A person can be a terrorist regardless of race, creed, religion, etc. The same for hackers. That said, the article is specifically discussing a Chinese GOV linked hacker, and thus he is a 'Chinese Hacker'. This can be said without being racist. That he's also of Chinese descent is inconsequential. I'm certain our spook operations have people of every race and background as long as they get the job done. If we say that someone was a 'Chinese Hacker' while they're sitting in the NSA office in Norfolk, VA... oh yeah, that's racist.
  - rikacomet 14y ago
    yeah, I read that. I was saying in general. Though, one thing caught me in the article: Working on behalf of the state, and working in the state machinery is two different things. If you are skilled, and suppose, you can really do stuff, he did in this case, and as it is, for a minute if we give him the benefit of doubt, that no he is not hacking on behalf of the state, its clear, that since to the chinese govt, itself, he is innocent. And the only thing that can be proven is his skill, through our validation. Which makes him all the very suitable to teach at a chinese IT related institute. so yeah, that might be a good reason to say that, we should introspect, that how should such articles shape our perception of the chinese. Seriously, lets stop looking at who is building more weapons! Instead, lets compete in who is making more jobs!
cgh 14y ago
It's like HN has never heard of the 50 Cent Army. Guess what, they're here and they aren't trolling.
- druiid 14y ago
  I've heard of them, but you think this commenter wasn't simply a troll? Could be so, but I question how useful it would be here. HN is pretty well known, but enough to have concerted campaigns in place?

by druiid 14y ago

alanctgardner2 14y ago

Just a comment, you meant "who", not "whom".

druiid 14y ago
Indeed. Thanks for calling out my grammar mistake so early in the morning ;).

rikacomet 14y ago

It is indeed racist in a minor manner. You see, we all have become adept to such a way of journalism. you ask how? Well, going by common sense identifying where a hacker is based, if he is not working for the government, is of no use. Do I care if the hacker, who hacked my gmail account on his accord was Indian or Chinese or even American? No I don't. But, alternatively, I would only want to know if they are state sponsored. So it is assumed always, not just in terms of hacking, but also other criminal acts, like say terrorism. Saying " A Muslim Terrorist " is of no use, and create un-necessary delusion and association between the words 'muslim' and 'terrorist'. Which could have been avoided otherwise by saying 'a Terrorist', because the fact is that a terrorist is a terrorist. But the thing is, we have been hotwired like this for years, we want such unnecessary associations, which we can see through 'most' of the times (but not always, say when we experience something similar nearby). In simple words you can say, we are used to letting journalist screw with our mind with. 'American Fraudster''Muslim Terrorist' 'Chinese Hacker' 'Japanese Pedophile' 'Hindu Extremist' Pick a newspaper up some odd day, and you will find a lot of them. PS: Indeed my reasons to call such articles 'slightly racist' are perhaps different for why the original poster said it was 'racist'.

druiid 14y ago
You can make those associations in other contexts and I would fully agree with what you said here. A person can be a terrorist regardless of race, creed, religion, etc. The same for hackers. That said, the article is specifically discussing a Chinese GOV linked hacker, and thus he is a 'Chinese Hacker'. This can be said without being racist. That he's also of Chinese descent is inconsequential. I'm certain our spook operations have people of every race and background as long as they get the job done. If we say that someone was a 'Chinese Hacker' while they're sitting in the NSA office in Norfolk, VA... oh yeah, that's racist.
- rikacomet 14y ago
  yeah, I read that. I was saying in general. Though, one thing caught me in the article: Working on behalf of the state, and working in the state machinery is two different things. If you are skilled, and suppose, you can really do stuff, he did in this case, and as it is, for a minute if we give him the benefit of doubt, that no he is not hacking on behalf of the state, its clear, that since to the chinese govt, itself, he is innocent. And the only thing that can be proven is his skill, through our validation. Which makes him all the very suitable to teach at a chinese IT related institute. so yeah, that might be a good reason to say that, we should introspect, that how should such articles shape our perception of the chinese. Seriously, lets stop looking at who is building more weapons! Instead, lets compete in who is making more jobs!

cgh 14y ago

It's like HN has never heard of the 50 Cent Army. Guess what, they're here and they aren't trolling.

druiid 14y ago
I've heard of them, but you think this commenter wasn't simply a troll? Could be so, but I question how useful it would be here. HN is pretty well known, but enough to have concerted campaigns in place?