I thought it was relevant, given the changing culture of protest across the world and their tie-ins to encryption.
This, and HN's attempts to "de-politicize" this forum, remind me of a conversation a Russian-born Valley-based venture capitalist. I asked why Silicon Valley seems less politically organized, and thus influential, at the grassroots level than New York City.
"New York is closer to D.C.," she observed. But that doesn't explain why the average person from Silicon Valley has less influence than, say, from Los Angeles.
We're Alan Turings, she said. Turing wanted to be left alone to make things. Unfortunately, his government didn't see similarly. First, with World War II and later by prosecuting him for his sexual orientation. Being able to be left alone to make things is a luxury, a delicate balance almost unprecedented across human history. We will lose the privilege if we refuse to even discuss it.