Re:Attributing the DNC Hacks to Russia – Bruce Schneier
by rwallace on Monday January 09, 2017 @02:59PM
(#13359302)
> You sure sound like you're quoting Trump almost verbatim.
I'm making true statements. If Trump or whoever agrees with them, good for him. If he doesn't, too bad. I'm not going to start supporting falsehoods just because this or that famous person agrees or disagrees. Are you planning to change your mind on any issue just because someone says you sound like you're quoting Hilary almost verbatim?
> You're conflating several different parts of the United States government in your attempts to make this a partisan issue
Uh, there seems to be some confusion here. The only one in this conversation who wants to make this a partisan issue is you. My point is that I don't give a shit which part of the United States government is doing this or that. I'm opposing dangerous and hypocritical bullshit whoever it comes from.
> No, I only throw it around when people tell me I should accept a murderous foreign dictator seeking to weaken the established world order so that he can successfully slaughter more of his neighbors in Ukraine and Georgia. I'm not a big believer in appeasement, personally.
Ah, so now we get to the real point. It's not actually about the hack at all. If that hadn't happened, you would merely be put to the trouble of looking for another pretext. What you want is a war with Russia, on whatever pretext.
One of my favorite Terry Pratchett quotes is "the flipside of the coin of which good and evil are on the same side." I use it for things that break the abstraction that humans are agents, that turn us into Hofstadter's sphex wasps, blindly executing behavior that an observer could see is obviously maladaptive.
If you achieve your goal of starting a war with Russia, you yourself will die along with the rest of us. You are intelligent enough to know this, but it doesn't register in your brain. You are blindly executing behavior that was adaptive in the stone age, but has become lethally maladaptive in the nuclear age.
At that, I've said what I have to say. Have the last word if you like. All I can suggest is to at least try at some point to turn off the tribal politics circuits of your brain, replace the labels with arbitrary symbols, imagine you were looking at an alien species behaving like this and think what your opinion of them would be.
I'm making true statements. If Trump or whoever agrees with them, good for him. If he doesn't, too bad. I'm not going to start supporting falsehoods just because this or that famous person agrees or disagrees. Are you planning to change your mind on any issue just because someone says you sound like you're quoting Hilary almost verbatim?
> You're conflating several different parts of the United States government in your attempts to make this a partisan issue
Uh, there seems to be some confusion here. The only one in this conversation who wants to make this a partisan issue is you. My point is that I don't give a shit which part of the United States government is doing this or that. I'm opposing dangerous and hypocritical bullshit whoever it comes from.
> No, I only throw it around when people tell me I should accept a murderous foreign dictator seeking to weaken the established world order so that he can successfully slaughter more of his neighbors in Ukraine and Georgia. I'm not a big believer in appeasement, personally.
Ah, so now we get to the real point. It's not actually about the hack at all. If that hadn't happened, you would merely be put to the trouble of looking for another pretext. What you want is a war with Russia, on whatever pretext.
One of my favorite Terry Pratchett quotes is "the flipside of the coin of which good and evil are on the same side." I use it for things that break the abstraction that humans are agents, that turn us into Hofstadter's sphex wasps, blindly executing behavior that an observer could see is obviously maladaptive.
If you achieve your goal of starting a war with Russia, you yourself will die along with the rest of us. You are intelligent enough to know this, but it doesn't register in your brain. You are blindly executing behavior that was adaptive in the stone age, but has become lethally maladaptive in the nuclear age.
At that, I've said what I have to say. Have the last word if you like. All I can suggest is to at least try at some point to turn off the tribal politics circuits of your brain, replace the labels with arbitrary symbols, imagine you were looking at an alien species behaving like this and think what your opinion of them would be.