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Comment by shrugger | Hacker News Reader

Yeah what do I know anyways? I just work there, I'm sure your google search lends you more clarity as to what they're doing than my day-after-day exposure.

Cool.

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Frankly, you're the one that emphasized the name as if it meant anything; maybe you should have left out that argument and made the case based on your personal experience instead.

There is no argument. What the department is or is not doing is not up for argument. Objective reality doesn't change just because the dept used to have a different name, that's stupid.

I work with dozens of peaceful, bright people, on projects that are responsible for keeping people safe without violence or conflict or any nonsense like that. Many of the people whom I work with wouldn't swat a fly, so I don't really concern myself with the thoughts of people who have no clue what they're talking about, like commenters on HN who google "depart of defense not really about defense???" and then think they've stumped me. Honestly.

Objective reality doesn't change just because the dept used to have a different name, that's stupid.

Exactly. Then why did you bring the name up? Nobody was even talking about the name before you posted; seems rather silly to complain about people discussing it now.

Shrugger, I think we are aware that DoD is too big to only have one objective. My aunt, anecdotally, had a long career in cybersecurity with DoD. I still posted the comment about the old name because the DoD engages in expensive and unnecessary wars which use such a significant percentage of DoD's resources. Using the name "Defense" to interpret the department's actions decreases understanding of it.

I actually think that working someplace gives you less insight as to what the place does, because there's a strong psychological desire to believe that you're doing something good for the world. (I've had this happen to me a couple of times before. My previous employer didn't even do anything evil, just enabled IT departments to do certain things, but I suddenly realized when they collapsed that everyone's better off if IT departments can't do those things.)

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