5 ms·
I think this NSA case is getting way too air time on HackerNews. We're turning HN into the drudge report. Snowden may well be a spy and we've made him into som
by lmg643 13y ago
I think this NSA case is getting way too air time on HackerNews. We're turning HN into the drudge report.
Snowden may well be a spy and we've made him into some kind of martyr/hero. His actions came out right around a major summit with China and he defected within their sphere of protection. Allows the chinese to paint us as the bad guy while appearing as a protector of free speech. Brilliant.
No one is talking about chinese industrial espionage now, which is arguably much more damaging to the US than reading people's yahoo email, particularly that of suspected terrorists. And this was most likely the point of the whole exercise.
The story needs to play out - let the facts unfold.
- SeanDav 13y agoNot sure what you are trying to suggest here: - We don't talk about this because it is not relevant? - We don't talk about it because it takes focus away from the Chinese, who are the real villains here? What exactly is your point?
- omonra 13y agoHis point is that HN is turning into a 'What did Snowden say today' channel.
- jlgreco 13y agoHis point is that he doesn't like Snowden because of the Chinese angle so he doesn't want us to talk about it, but because that is a pretty stupid reason not to talk about something he is going to tell us that we should not talk about it because it is not relevant to HN. Notice that almost all of the people who think that this issue is getting to much HN attention coincidentally also disagree with what he has done...
- NhanH 13y agoIf he is indeed a spy, then the Americans have TWO problems to deal with. And it has absolutely no bearing on the current privacy discussion - the two problems are damaging in two (relatively) different aspects.
- gte910h 13y agoI do think it's pretty important to talk about this here, as it is "Major Tech Companies" that get pushed into this thing. The more we know about avoiding it, etc, the better we are
- ksks 13y agoForeign espionage is arguably more damaging than a government possibly violating its own constitution and betraying the values its country is founded upon? There always was, and will always be, other countries spying on you (and each other), but once the rights of the people are given up to the authority, it is very hard to take it back. I hold the prospective that the freedom and prosperity of US are more or less based its foundation on its constitutions and the values it was founded on. It is very hard to agree that foreign espionage would be more damaging to the US as you described.