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Comment by verbin217 | Hacker News Reader

Well... As the guy that did all of that let me tell you: it's futile. I knew back when Bill Binney came forward. It was all documented or otherwise obvious. From this I've learned something. People are HEAVILY biased towards the version of the "truth" that lets them do what they want. Like whatever they were doing before you started talking about this shit. lol. The WANT comes first for them. Then when you complain about all of this they assume the same of you. The actuality of anything is irrelevant. They assume you must WANT for it to be true. Then infer that you must necessarily be the kind of person who's WANT is to escape society. A loser. You hemerage status by talking about any of this. So you shut up. Honestly I don't think you did anything wrong... But also, I don't know what right is anymore.

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> it's futile ... People are HEAVILY biased towards the version of the "truth" that lets them do what they want.

That's hardly futile - it's just the norm, the starting point for any social change. Our society gave civil rights to a small black minority (~12% of the population now; I don't know about then) after centuries of discrimination, gave equal rights to women after millenia of descrimination, grew an environmental movement, and much more. In all those situations, the people advocating change faced far greater obstacles than what you describe, yet they changed almost every person's perception, society's norms, and almost every industry's and business' practices.

I agree it seems daunting, but then I grasp the courage of people like MLK, Rachel Carson, and others even more. Think of what they felt as they looked at the culture of their day.

(And yes, all those movements still have much more to do.)

> it's futile

I agree. I've mostly (99.999%) given up on participating in American politics for the betterment of society.

> People are HEAVILY biased towards the version of the "truth" that lets them do what they want.

I just have to point out that by taking the stance that you and I are taking, we're doing the same. I'm biased towards the version of truth that lets me live as we want. In other words, I could massively disrupt my life as Snowden did, and that actually might make a difference. However, I convince myself that it wouldn't, so I can just work, make money, and pursue my usual definition of happiness.

>Well... As the guy that did all of that let me tell you: it's futile

Wait what? you're Snowden?

> "... I could perhaps have tried to find out about things."

I meant that.

> Wait what? you're Snwoden?

Not that.

It was very polite of the parent to misspell it Snwoden to give you room to make a truthful denial.

I meant the former. It's truthful even if spelled correctly. ;)

Damn it! I just read this 10 hours later. I totally know how to spell "hemorrhage". Don't judge me posterity.

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