7 ms·

I just posted this on G+: A Long Island woman named Michele Catalano posts photos of M-66 explosives (that look to me like extra-large firecrackers) publicly o

by declan 13y ago

I just posted this on G+: A Long Island woman named Michele Catalano posts photos of M-66 explosives (that look to me like extra-large firecrackers) publicly on Facebook. A few weeks later the local cops show up and ask her husband if they have any bomb-making equipment. Instead of drawing the most likely conclusion, she instead blames this on local Long Island cops MONITORING HER GOOGLE SEARCHES: https://plus.google.com/112961607570158342254/posts/FWAVRVaN64h https://plus.google.com/112961607570158342254/posts/FWAVRVaN...

tptacek 13y ago
Of course we could expect this kind of behavior for you, as one of Hacker News' most notorious government apologists.
- sneak 13y ago
  seriously irlollin'. :D
- declan 13y ago
  Touche! :)
sneak 13y ago
Agitprop, regardless of validity, is useful if it achieves our ends. You of all people know what a powerful adversary apathy is. If lies were used to scare people into supporting these programs, they can be used to scare people into abolishing them.
- gruseom 13y ago
  Did you seriously just advocate intentional lying as a political device? That's a nasty road that ends in a dark place.
  - harshreality 13y ago
    Darker than having the NSA collect a good portion of unencrypted internet traffic, and an unknown amount of traffic that was supposed to be secure in transit but might be obtained through back door deals with the service providers themselves? Darker than having a ton of laws nobody can follow and an increasingly militarized police force to enforce those laws? I'm curious, what darkness do you see in ordinary citizens lying, or drawing unfounded connections between events, to try to shift the political system and social consciousness toward more freedom? Are you one of those people who views telling the absolute truth as a categorical imperative? How much of the anti-British rhetoric of pre-revolution United States (colonies) do you view as lies? A lot of political activity, advertising, and news involves lies of some type (omission, accidental lies, misleading statements... not just answering "yes" when you know the true answer is "no").
    - tptacek 13y ago
      Yes, darker than those things. When the vector for change is lies, the party that lies most effectively wins. Guess what: that's not us.
      - harshreality 13y ago
        Not lying won't keep the other side from lying.
        tptacek 13y ago
        The point of not lying isn't to make the other side not lie.
      - sneak 13y ago
        I refer you to the statements made by the DNI to Congress, or Obama to Charlie Rose. Furthermore, the media concocts completely fabricated narrative hung upon zero to minimal facts all the time, to devastating effect. I refer you to the whole Snowden's girlfriend thing, or the Martin/Zimmerman thing, or the recent "google something and feds arrive" thing. It's all made-up bullshit that people buy into en masse. It causes them to become so passionate about their adopted stance, even contrary factual data later will be ignored. Public opinion _will_ be managed, and policy _will_ be changed as a result. This is the playing field we stand upon today, like it or not. (Personally, I hate it - but I do not deny the state of affairs.) The enemy has demonstrated a willingness to lie endlessly to obtain and sustain illegal power over us. The path is clear. I vastly prefer to be effective than unimpeachable.
bjourne 13y ago
According to the article they asked: Have you ever looked up how to make a pressure cooker bomb? It's kind of a weird question to ask unless they knew about the google searches don't you think?
- declan 13y ago
  After the Boston bombing, if I were a cop being told "someone posted a photo of explosives on Facebook," I would absolutely ask about pressure cookers even on a routine visit. Just to see what their reaction is.
  - Buzaga 13y ago
    that's easy to say after the 'successfull inception' of it, but honestly, what you said it's pure-nonsense... just like kicking a ball the wrong way to then scream "I knew it was gonna happen!"
    - declan 13y ago
      I wrote a column for many years called "Police Blotter" and have some familiarity with law enforcement investigative techniques. This is what happens in real life, not on HN.
  - bjourne 13y ago
    Well, it is of course possible the question about "looking up pressure cooker bombs" came from thin air. Lucky coincidence. But, in light of the recent revelations, I think it is less probable than some NSA analyst flagging the terms "pressure cooker"+"backpack" and passing that info along to police departments. YMMV

by declan 13y ago

tptacek 13y ago

Of course we could expect this kind of behavior for you, as one of Hacker News' most notorious government apologists.

sneak 13y ago
seriously irlollin'. :D
declan 13y ago
Touche! :)

sneak 13y ago

Agitprop, regardless of validity, is useful if it achieves our ends. You of all people know what a powerful adversary apathy is. If lies were used to scare people into supporting these programs, they can be used to scare people into abolishing them.

gruseom 13y ago
Did you seriously just advocate intentional lying as a political device? That's a nasty road that ends in a dark place.
- harshreality 13y ago
  Darker than having the NSA collect a good portion of unencrypted internet traffic, and an unknown amount of traffic that was supposed to be secure in transit but might be obtained through back door deals with the service providers themselves? Darker than having a ton of laws nobody can follow and an increasingly militarized police force to enforce those laws? I'm curious, what darkness do you see in ordinary citizens lying, or drawing unfounded connections between events, to try to shift the political system and social consciousness toward more freedom? Are you one of those people who views telling the absolute truth as a categorical imperative? How much of the anti-British rhetoric of pre-revolution United States (colonies) do you view as lies? A lot of political activity, advertising, and news involves lies of some type (omission, accidental lies, misleading statements... not just answering "yes" when you know the true answer is "no").
  - tptacek 13y ago
    Yes, darker than those things. When the vector for change is lies, the party that lies most effectively wins. Guess what: that's not us.
    - harshreality 13y ago
      Not lying won't keep the other side from lying.
      - tptacek 13y ago
        The point of not lying isn't to make the other side not lie.
    - sneak 13y ago
      I refer you to the statements made by the DNI to Congress, or Obama to Charlie Rose. Furthermore, the media concocts completely fabricated narrative hung upon zero to minimal facts all the time, to devastating effect. I refer you to the whole Snowden's girlfriend thing, or the Martin/Zimmerman thing, or the recent "google something and feds arrive" thing. It's all made-up bullshit that people buy into en masse. It causes them to become so passionate about their adopted stance, even contrary factual data later will be ignored. Public opinion _will_ be managed, and policy _will_ be changed as a result. This is the playing field we stand upon today, like it or not. (Personally, I hate it - but I do not deny the state of affairs.) The enemy has demonstrated a willingness to lie endlessly to obtain and sustain illegal power over us. The path is clear. I vastly prefer to be effective than unimpeachable.

bjourne 13y ago

According to the article they asked: Have you ever looked up how to make a pressure cooker bomb? It's kind of a weird question to ask unless they knew about the google searches don't you think?

declan 13y ago
After the Boston bombing, if I were a cop being told "someone posted a photo of explosives on Facebook," I would absolutely ask about pressure cookers even on a routine visit. Just to see what their reaction is.
- Buzaga 13y ago
  that's easy to say after the 'successfull inception' of it, but honestly, what you said it's pure-nonsense... just like kicking a ball the wrong way to then scream "I knew it was gonna happen!"
  - declan 13y ago
    I wrote a column for many years called "Police Blotter" and have some familiarity with law enforcement investigative techniques. This is what happens in real life, not on HN.
- bjourne 13y ago
  Well, it is of course possible the question about "looking up pressure cooker bombs" came from thin air. Lucky coincidence. But, in light of the recent revelations, I think it is less probable than some NSA analyst flagging the terms "pressure cooker"+"backpack" and passing that info along to police departments. YMMV