at least on Hacker News
This community's #1 member by karma holds a conspiracy theory that Assange works for Vladimir Putin. Most HN members uncritically accept this member's opinion on everything.
This community's #1 member by karma holds a conspiracy theory that Assange works for Vladimir Putin. Most HN members uncritically accept this member's opinion on everything.
I assume you are referring to this[1] comment by tptacek. I hardly think think trying to rationally assess motivation and call into question a narrative he sees as unsupported, and presenting what he used to deride as "funny to me before, in the sense that it's fun to smirk at the way infosec nerds want to believe they're living in a spy novel" as something that gives him pause counts as "holds a conspiracy theory". The only thing definitive you can say about his stance from that comment is that he has more questions about that possible relationship, when he used to think it was ridiculous. Characterizing it as you have is uncalled for.
> Most HN members uncritically accept this member's opinion on everything.
You seriously think that? More often than not, when I see a comment from tptacek, I'm expecting two things at the same time, a competent discussion and argument from multiple people on the specifics of what he's presented, and a shit-show of people assuming too much from his comments and extrapolating positions beyond what he has stated and responding to those. The latter of those generally get downvoted after he explains, in his somewhat acerbic way, that they are not really responding to what he said. This looks to be a case of the latter, if time-shifted almost two months.
I've both agreed and disagreed with tptacek on many different points, and argued a few of them with him. If you have a problem with his views, address that with him specifically. Don't mischaracterize his statements and use them as a way to smear the community as a whole by proxy.
Karma on here is really not a great badge of achievement. If I had started ten years ago, based on my current karma gain rate of talking out of my ass and posting anything interesting from my newsletter and RSS subscriptions, I could be a top 10 karma user here. It's really less a measure of performance than longevity.