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Comment by 0x_rs | Hacker News Reader

There's quite a bit of news being published lately about concern on the recent and supposedly upcoming unrest, from "assassinations" to "blowing up data centers".. while enhancing security measures and protocols is reasonable, I wonder how much truth is there in that - who would most benefit from overblowing this risk, and for what purpose?

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Politicians who want to gin up anger and money from their supporters and stigmatize their political opponents, intelligence agencies and defense contractors who will see increased power and funding, a variety of NGOs and corporations who will be delegated power to “fight domestic terror”. Whoever benefited from the original Patriot Act. Plus lots of clicks and views for media outlets that have found a new panic now that the current president who generates all their traffic is leaving.

Nobody expected that the Capitol would be broken into, this could be that people don't know what to expect anymore and are panicking.

The recent bombing in Nashville damaged an AT&T data center.

The answer is “nobody”. Giving credence to fringe conspiracy theories is actively damaging society and you should consider weighing probabilities of explanations from multiple points of view before committing to one, certainly before typing a comment online.

Don't you remember the last war on terrorism (that is still going on, btw)?

Weren't there a bunch of politicians, government agencies, and corporations (i.e. Dick Cheney + Halliburton) who gained billions of dollars and permanently revoked constitutional rights (i.e. Joe Biden who helped author the Patriot Act)?

The answer to the question of "who profits from a war on terror"? Is plainly and historically obvious: the military police industrial complex.

If anything recent events demonstrate how much chuff can be cut out of the defense budget. 670 bUSD/yr and a blank check to spy on citizens and they can’t keep a medium sized mob from threatening the legislative head. That doesn’t conjure up a feeling of revoking citizen rights. That conjures up a feeling that the entire defense and intelligence command structure should be revisited, and potentially burned down.

I agree we should reduce defense spending, but the rest of your comment is actually proving my point. People saying the system should be burned down (whether thats the left or the right saying that) only incites the system to tighten its grip on power.

I don't believe I'm giving credence to any "conspiracies" with that comment, nor was it my intention in the least. May I suggest you stand by your words and consider a skeptic point of view on this alleged threat?

The FBI said that a week ago. "Who in God's name would mount an armed insurrection on the nation's capitol?"

Once bitten, twice shy

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