More likely it's just people being foolish.

Yes. It happens a lot when pointing out privacy consciousness to a layman. Not that I do that often, but when I do, it's the overwhelmingly disproportionate response. Only followed by something about being worth it for the convenience.

It's used all the time everywhere. From the CCP surveillance, to forced police searches, to normalizing lack of privacy in apartment living, the examples are endless.

Not a strawman at all, it's a very common attitude if you are not on HN or in a similar bubble. I heard it in person (verbatim, actually) about 5 days ago.

Happened to me too, and those who told me practically handled it as a conscious tradeoff. They give up some privacy, whatever, they're not doing anything extraordinary, and they reap some benefits.

my mother, my best friend, multiple co-workers and ex girlfriends. Even one person who grew up under the Warsaw Pact, and defected. He would say it, even when he did have something to hide, because he knew that the powers that be could always use something against you. Also known as CYA.

fascinating rebuttal, so because you - a random account - didn't notice it before, it must be a strawman argument.

I don't really understand the utility of going that direction? Like, are you advocating for something in particular such as anti-privacy measures or are really just independently unaware that people would say something while that's fascinating enough to you that it would be a fictional argument that you feel undermine "pro-privacy" talking points

Its just hard to see why it would bother you enough to invalidate it

Must have heard it dozens of times by now. Many on Hacker News.