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Comment by aaron-lebo | Hacker News Reader

Edit: I apologize for clearly being ignorant about who Bruce Schneier is. May God have mercy on my soul.

I don't know who Bruce Schneier is any more than he knows who I am. I'm under no obligation to read his past statements and works before I comment on a blog post of his.

What has changed under Trump is that the power is now concentrated in tiny hands that seem particularly like it to abuse it, unconstrained by social norms or political checks.

And what's the evidence for that? Surveillance culture started under Bush and thrived under Obama. Would Clinton roll it back? Both your comment and Schneier's post have that same underlying assumption that Trump will be worse. Why is Trump worse? Why is he scarier?

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We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13184727 and marked it off-topic.

If you're going to say "why only now..." and say you don't understand the author's mindset for conditioning his concerns on who is in power, then yes, you do have an obilgation to back that up.

Like many, I was surprised and shocked by the election of Donald Trump as president. I believe his ideas, temperament, and inexperience represent a grave threat to our country and world. Suddenly, all the things I had planned to work on seemed trivial in comparison. Although Internet security and privacy are not the most important policy areas at risk, I believe he -- and, more importantly, his cabinet, administration, and Congress -- will have devastating effects in that area, both in the US and around the world.

Trump's election just means the threats will be much greater, and the battles a lot harder to win.

It's true that some of Trump's institutional changes might take decades to undo.

It's his job to justify sentiments like that. Without it, it's an out of context blog post. If you expect the reader to go back and read an author's past history to understand those assumptions in the text, then you are expecting a lot of the reader and not much of the writer.

But again, my question is: what practically signals that Internet freedoms under Trump will be worse than they would be under Clinton? I see nothing to suggest that Clinton wouldn't be similar to Obama. Why is Trump worse?

Mate, you're reading a website called Hacker News, I don't think it's unreasonable for others to think you might have an idea who Bruce Schneider is. All blog posts are 'out of context' the context for them is the blog in which they're situated and it's there for you to read.

Aaron, your unfamiliarity with Schneier's extensive writings does not amount to Schneier's post being "out of context."

> I'm under no obligation to read his past statements and works before I comment on a blog post of his.

Good morning, Mr. Trump. Didn't see you coming in this early.

Instead of counter-trolling, it would be better if you just downvoted, flagged the comment, or mailed hn@ycombinator.com.

Or, y'know, replied substantively to substantive comments.

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