Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

The parallels are strong:

- Lazily creates an appearance of addressing a problem by going after a sometimes-associated activity

- Collateral damage to activities that aren't necessarily wrong, but that upset some group

- Only affects the little guy (to the major players, it's just a cost of doing business)

- Creates a purportedly-neutral cover on what is essentially political persecution

- Based on the God delusion that assumes some ambient authority is capable of passing correct judgment on every situation



Don't forget:

- Rationalizes the creation of a massive bureaucracy to control (and centralize) what beforehand was considered normal and local in scope.

- Rationalizes universal surveillance by unaccountable individuals in federal bureaucracies against the entire population. This can and has been abused in the case of bank disclosures required by anti-money laundering laws: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/politics/us-arrests-treasury-...

(Note that the so-called "suspicious activity reports" she leaked were merely transactions that met some criteria like being above a threshold amount).




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: