Turkish government banned dropbox for hiding this torrent. please fork

Re:Turkish government banned dropbox for hiding this torrent... by glup on Saturday October 08, 2016 @03:10PM (#12668162)

I disagree with OP's characterization of HN as a 'technical' site. Technical and political domains are recursively embedded; engineers have a moral and ethical obligation to understand the 'political' implications of their 'technical' decisions, and may make better technical decisions if they understand the political context. One of the reasons I value HN is because very knowledgeable people think about this greater context. This is the core of the political.

The problem isn't activists using services like github; it's states shutting down these services in response.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Turkish government banned dropbox for hiding this torrent... by PavlovsCat on Sunday October 09, 2016 @02:25AM (#12670106)

> The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude.

-- George Orwell, "Why I Write" (1946)

Having no position means adopting the position of bullies and tyrants; or as the title of the Howard Zinn bio goes, you can't be neutral on a moving train. Also, entertaining "purely technical" (or mathematical or whatever) thoughts is kind of a luxury, and it's downstream from politics. That's not a value statement, but while all work and no play may make Jake a dull boy, all play and no work will make him a gone boy. If you love a thing very much, you absolutely should care about its foundations, and those who would sink them into the memory hole.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Turkish government banned dropbox for hiding this torrent... by jshevek on Saturday October 08, 2016 @03:11PM (#12668168)

I took the parent's comment to be describing github as a technical site, not HN.

[ Parent | on HN ]