Hacker News Reader

Comment by boomboomsubban | Hacker News Reader

So he's tempting prosecution because a NYT story last month referenced a disclosure he made four years ago from a fifty year old study he copied forty years ago.

While I like to see the press remind the public that whistleblowers are often not given the pretense of a fair trial, I don't see anything supporting the headline's claim that he's tempting prosecution.

View on HN

> Now Ellsberg, who recently turned 90, is calling on the U.S. government to prosecute him under the 1917 Espionage Act.

> The government, Ellsberg plausibly believes, “is not anxious” to prosecute him. But he hopes to force the issue, in an attempt to bring the case to the Supreme Court and have the Espionage Act declared unconstitutional — a long-held goal of First Amendment advocates.

https://theintercept.com/2021/06/01/daniel-ellsberg-china-at...

"Wants prosecution" seems like a much more accurate headline. "Tempts" makes it seem like the US is considering it, and that they haven't for the four years since the release shows they're unlikely to.

Tempt doesn't have the connotation that you believe it to have. When you tempt you entice, regardless of whether the person you are tempting considers acting on your enticement.

No, I think he's right. A chocolate cake may be tempting to you but not to me.

Thank you. I have learned more about the word, tempt. It can be a verb with an object or a verb without an object. Therefore, either use is correct, but the meaning differs slightly betweem them. I can tempt you with cake, but in return you might not be tempted by the cake.

Not really. You can attempt to tempt someone with cake, but to succeed in tempting them they'd have to experience temptation.

Actually, what I wrote is true. Look at the definitions of tempt in order to see this.

  Definition of tempt
  transitive verb

  1: to entice to do wrong by promise of pleasure or gain
  2a: to induce to do something
   b: to cause to be strongly inclined
      was tempted to call it quits
  3a: to try presumptuously : PROVOKE
      tempt fate
   b: to risk the dangers of
   c: obsolete : to make trial of : TEST

[1] https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/tempt

Yes, that supports what I'm saying.

Meaning the action needs to be enticing, even if they are not considering it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com