Hacker News Reader

Comment by cucumber3732842 | Hacker News Reader

>As a hungarian: agent would imply a member of the secret police which have already been released years ago. These are informants, regular people like students and teachers to members of the churches to actors and musicians etc.

Yes and? That they did it for free instead of for pay is supposed to make it better?

View on HN

And agent is not the same as informer. Whether it's better, worse, or the same is up to you.

"And agent is not the same as informer"

The difference is not really clear in reality and can get blurry quickly. Informants can also be ordered to do more active things to get information - or spread missinformation, or be ordered to do other active things. Simple things like luring a person to a party, or using their influence of position to prevent or make something happen (punish/promote a student/worker, make a certain result go away, ..).

So the majority were likely passive informants with the job of writing reports, but not all of them. And to me it rather would matter if they took the job voluntarily or were forced to do it.

Agents vs informants is a venn diagram. Some informants become active participants under orders of an intelligence officer, they are instructed to use their access for further tasks. Some agents infiltrate groups and inform their handler on group activities and membership. Not all agents inform (they may perform things like sabotage or murder) and not all informants are instructed to do anything (they are paid and never contacted again).

"i like waffles"

"oh so you HATE pancakes?!"

this is to say, no, it just means what it means. rest is all you man.

Your silence about ice cream is very telling...

Informants are often compensated in a variety of ways. Maybe you get some cash or maybe you avoid arrest or torture in exchange for giving up someone else. Or maybe becoming an informant was a criteria for government sponsorship in academics or sports or to keep their position in a high profile career. Although some informants just do it for ego or ideological reasons. Is your neighbor annoying you with their late night clandestine meetings? Rat them out! It's unfortunate that these records don't include reasons as to why someone became an informant and what information they actually contributed, if any.

There are several Chinese informants caught in the last few years in Western countries, a lot was just doing it for ideological reasons, the monetary reward really doesn’t match the troubles involved and the severity of the crime

That information may come in spring when the B files drop.

Many became informants because they were approached by agents asking them to tell them everything they knew about a target. Pretending to not know anything was risky. If they discovered that you didn't tell them about something you should have known, it was your ass that got sent to a re-education camp. If they as much as suspected that you were withholding information, you may have found your job suddenly relocated to some forgotten corner of the country.

If you think, i'm exaggerating. My grandfather, a prominent writer, was exiled to teach elementary school in far-off village for a few years after one of the ruling elites decided that his latest play was unsympathetic to Communist ideals.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com