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Comment by armored_mammal | Hacker News Reader

What, do you think people have no social responsibility towards the institutions they support?

If you belonged to the Westboro Baptist Church or some other group it'd be legit to claim you're responsible for their actions to a certain degree.

Why do MIT students get a special exemption from the chain of responsibility that applies to everyone else?

If you are a member of a collectivist institution it's also your responsibility to take what action you can to shape its moral aspect. And to be silent is to abet.

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What makes you think students at MIT aren't trying to make a difference? Do you expect something to happen within days of a tragedy? This takes organization, and outrage, and discussion. People searching for solutions. The wrong message would be to attack students, who are also ultimately victims of information monopoly.

I fear you're cutting off the nose to spite the face.

And these frequent DDoS attacks are partly to blame for Aaron's death, it's the reason why prosecutors are so hardcore about "hacking" or anything vaguely similar to it.

Well trolled.

I am not associated with MIT. However I consider Abelson's forthcoming report as being more representative of the organization, than whatever random administrator was dealing with the prosecutor. Abelson was undoubtably there before the administrator in question, will be there after, and is far more widely known than the currently faceless administrator.

Look at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hal_Abelson then get back to me on whether that is a reputation that a student should be proud of or rejecting.

You lost me at Westboro Baptist Church, which isn't comparable. WBC is a voluntary group, which I assume you can enter and exit without penalty.

Imagine you're a student, halfway through your 4 year program at MIT... You don't know Aaron, or anything about his situation. Yes, you get an exemption from blame, because it has nothing to do with you and it's not your business. You cannot just exit and go elsewhere without seriously hurting yourself.

When you're enrolled at a University, you are not part of a collectivist institution, you are a customer at a business. If you choose to go elsewhere, that's on you, but who is anyone else to tell you what you should do? You're starting to sound like the WBC...

And your tuition money is so entirely different than tithing how?

Likewise, customers have social responsibility in their purchasing decisions, and transferring credits to another school isn't all that huge of a deal, either, so I'm kind of finding your take a little overblown. Obviously every student at MIT volunteered to come there, too.

That's like saying that if your father raped someone, you raped that person too. It's the same logic that was applied to Jews, Gypsies, and slaves for centuries (and is still applied in the Middle East today). It has no place in modern discourse.

It's more like ignoring that your father raped someone or tolerating it or telling him it's fine instead of getting him help or reporting it.

No, It's more like your 18th cousin 6 times removed raped someone... You don't know the guy, never met him, and some troll on the internet is blaming you for murder because you haven't publicly denounced him.

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