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Comment by toomuchtodo | Hacker News Reader

Having been directly involved contributing towards a government investigation that resulted in the conviction and incarceration of someone for white collar crime, I would disagree with your assessment. Doing something > doing nothing. You have to start somewhere, and a phone call is a fine place to start.

"Apathy is the glove into which evil slips its hand."

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How did you get involved with that? Did you just phone up and offer your services?

I'd imagine it going something like this:

"Hello, I have information that would likely be useful as evidence for the antitrust lawsuit against Google."

"Thanks, but I think we have it covered" -or- "Thanks, let me take a note so we both feel good about this interaction and never actually follow up on this."

When one wonders how the status-quo came to be, they need look no further than the dismissive attitudes they wield.

When the GP said "Doing something > doing nothing", try to see the value in such a mindset, irrespective of whether or not some action was taken by person on the receiving end of the information.

If nobody voices their concerns, the people have no voice.

Do you imagine or do you have experience? My contacts with the government has been okay, not amazing but okay. Shouldn’t we try to increase communication between the government and its citizens?

Yes! We very much should, even if every interaction isn’t perfect or results in a slam dunk outcome.

Googled government office performing investigation, call general number, ask for someone assigned to case X. "I have documents and electronic data that might be pertinent to an ongoing investigation you have open. Where can I send them?", which led to an in person meeting.

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