Re:FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill
by miles on Wednesday May 03, 2017 @11:13PM
(#14262142)
This is hardly the first time engineered paranoia has gripped the country ... I was a kid during the mid-to-late Cold War (post "duck and cover") and somehow I was never able to take it seriously.
Unfortunately, the threat was (and still very much is) real:
Stanislav Petrov: The man who may have saved the world http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24280831
Thank you Vasili Arkhipov, the man who stopped nuclear war https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2012/oct/27/vasili...
Not that paranoia is a particularly useful response, but it did not require much engineering.
Re:FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill
by cryptarch on Thursday May 04, 2017 @04:29AM
(#14263422)
I first got the impression you meant something like "the Red Menace", but I take it you meant:
Engineered paranoia is still very real and a danger to our societies because of its reality-distorting effects that can result in violent overreactions.
Did I get that right?
Re:FBI director Comey backs new Feinstein push for decrypt bill
by gumby on Thursday May 04, 2017 @01:39PM
(#14266918)
Yes, that is precisely what I meant.
> In this case, it might be better to assume malice rather than incompetence.
I really want to consider you paranoid, but sadly I strongly agree. This is hardly the first time engineered paranoia has gripped the country, but living through it is horrible.
I was a kid during the mid-to-late Cold War (post "duck and cover") and somehow I was never able to take it seriously. Even when I took classes on strategic deterrence and the like in college I considered them light entertainment I was paying for to give me a break from the serious classes.
Now we have the emperor's new suicide vest.