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I'm not sure how anything I said was anti-US. Is being at all reluctant to believe everything one hears anti-US to you? I'm wondering who is bringing discourse

by ddod 12y ago

I'm not sure how anything I said was anti-US. Is being at all reluctant to believe everything one hears anti-US to you? I'm wondering who is bringing discourse down here besides the person attacking commenters instead of discussing the content of their comments.

res0nat0r 12y ago
This is supposed to be a technical forum, but any post now related to the US government or the NSA too many people here now throw all of their technical know-how out the door and everything becomes conspiracy theory. Yet somehow Joe Random bloggers repudiations of said government are not met with any skepticism. Confirmation bias in full effect in these threads these days.
- ddod 12y ago
  Confirmation bias is definitely in full effect... My comment was on the technical aspects of the story and specifically highlighted the non-technical evidence as substandard. Joe Random bloggers who I've seen repudiate the government have by and large been well-known security experts compared to the nameless hand-waving of the FBI. I think what it comes down to is the question of whether educated people, after Snowden, WMDs, torture, and so on are better off presuming the accuracy or inaccuracy of the government's statements.
  - res0nat0r 12y ago
    This type of thinking is the exact problem that I'm highlighting. I respect Schneier and have read his stuff for a long time, and even gone to see him speak, but believing him over the FBI is just an appeal to authority when he is just another outsider without having access to any first-hand knowledge of what evidence the FBI possesses. Also now after Snowden everything the USG does is to be doubted (I'm guessing since his revelations affect the internet and this is the first issue that has directly affected people on HN), and now everything they do can somehow be traced back to trying to suppress, hamper, weaken and spy on you via internet. Watching the theories that somehow we'd try to use N Korea who have zero value economic value to the USA, or actually posing a threat as some kind of scapegoat to hinder online speech is more entertaining than anything else.

by ddod 12y ago

res0nat0r 12y ago

This is supposed to be a technical forum, but any post now related to the US government or the NSA too many people here now throw all of their technical know-how out the door and everything becomes conspiracy theory. Yet somehow Joe Random bloggers repudiations of said government are not met with any skepticism. Confirmation bias in full effect in these threads these days.

ddod 12y ago
Confirmation bias is definitely in full effect... My comment was on the technical aspects of the story and specifically highlighted the non-technical evidence as substandard. Joe Random bloggers who I've seen repudiate the government have by and large been well-known security experts compared to the nameless hand-waving of the FBI. I think what it comes down to is the question of whether educated people, after Snowden, WMDs, torture, and so on are better off presuming the accuracy or inaccuracy of the government's statements.
- res0nat0r 12y ago
  This type of thinking is the exact problem that I'm highlighting. I respect Schneier and have read his stuff for a long time, and even gone to see him speak, but believing him over the FBI is just an appeal to authority when he is just another outsider without having access to any first-hand knowledge of what evidence the FBI possesses. Also now after Snowden everything the USG does is to be doubted (I'm guessing since his revelations affect the internet and this is the first issue that has directly affected people on HN), and now everything they do can somehow be traced back to trying to suppress, hamper, weaken and spy on you via internet. Watching the theories that somehow we'd try to use N Korea who have zero value economic value to the USA, or actually posing a threat as some kind of scapegoat to hinder online speech is more entertaining than anything else.