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Comment by mcculley | Hacker News Reader

Most Americans don't understand what he did, in my experience.

That is, I'm an American and I work with technology and from conversations with fellow Americans who don't work with technology, they have formed an impression based on media sound bites.

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Isn't that how those who get their news from MSM get mislead, disinformed and brainwashed?

The MSM just trot out "experts" who have been instructed to repeat key phrases designed to obscure the truth. Gullible viewers and listeners just soak it all in.

That's how, even today, a significant percentage of Americans still believe that Saddam had something to do with 9/11.

Its rather unfair to call them gullible. I'd say most people are "brainwashed" when it comes to things outside their immediate area of work/knowledge/expertise. Certainly geopolitical issues evoke a strong emotional response because of their direct link to human suffering, but even looking at nutrition or fitness or accounting or car maintenance or what have you, its all a mess ! Yes, even tech people aren't as objective as we like to think we are. Some topics bring out the similar religious fervor - UNIX vs Windows, iOS vs Android, Open Source vs Proprietary, etc. We have our own conspiracy nuts too - Blaming MS for everything, reading evil intentions into normal business decisions, etc.

In my experience, the people who work with technology do the same, just with different sound bites.

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