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Comment by theCrowing | Hacker News Reader

Well, get elected write a bill and find allies. That's how.

we have a working solution to the problem of the cia snooping on political dissidents and for some reason you want us to abandon it and switch to a solution that won't work

why is that

Using government is an effective solution. It's slow, but it's a dedicated political campaign that overturned roe v wade.

Cryptography isnt a solution to this because wrench attacks will continue to exist

The senate had their computers compromised by the CIA. When caught they apologized and no one went to jail.

Tell me again about how voting is an “effective solution”.

>It's slow, but it's a dedicated political campaign that overturned roe v wade.

A President elected by a minority of voters under a system designed to disenfranchise the majority, who selected a panel of Supreme Court judges for life terms, themselves selected by a right-wing think tank specifically for their willingness to overturn Roe V. Wade, which had the support of the majority of the population and was settled law for nearly half a century.

That demonstrates the solution of government is only effective for a specific demographic... ironically the demographic that's been claiming everything is rigged against them for the last decade. For everyone else participating in the system seems like a fool's errand. One side was willing to risk sedition to get what it wanted, and suffered no real consequences, while the other side seems incapable of opposing the status quo, almost as if it's just there to provide the illusion of a choice between two sides.

I can see why people want to opt out. I vote, and I'm still going to vote on principle, just because I want to go down fighting, but I'm under no illusions that my vote is anything but a farce.

i used to believe that too

I don't think that poster is saying to ban Signal. A minority of people want to ban Signal. As it is Signal is legal and that's good. Democracy is also good. And yes people should participate in democracy rather than simply posting angry internet comments. Participating in democracy is also good.

well, democracy is better than dictatorship or monarchy, but that's damning it with faint praise

democracy didn't save the cherokees or the melians because they weren't voters

No, you believe you have a working solution, but you can't verify it. You know how you could verify it?

a critical press free of official censorship and intimidation which can protect its sources with free software and strong encryption (verified by free academic inquiry into its security) and funded anonymously by strongly anonymous cryptocurrency

and how could one make sure that the press is free?

do you mean to verify that it is free or to cause it to be free

Wow, it's so simple and easy, how has no one thought of that before and tried it?

Nobody said it is easy and that's why you don't do it and prefer to write sarcastic comments on the internet.

Simplistic "but hard" proposals beget sarcastic replies. I could enumerate some reasons why what you said is overly simplistic and ignores some harsh realities but I expect the response to be another variant of "no one said it would be easy". I guess no one is allowed to have an opinion on a topic without being prepared to martyr themselves for it?

So as with the topic at hand you assume a certain outcome even in discussions you try to derail with low effort jibs, got it.

Why aren't you doing it, then?

Oh, right, because it's impossible.

But I am, we fought a lot of battles and won over the last years with the previous German government, got the new one to adopt most of our (CCC) proposals and are now fighting again because of some proposals are again overreaching.

We aren’t talking about Germany, we are talking about the US (the article that sparked the discussion was in the New York Times). The US has an entirely different (and much less fair or representative) political system to Germany.

Who would have thought it could be so simple?

Nobody said it is easy and that's why you don't do it and prefer to write sarcastic comments on the internet.

Your self-righteous indignation is really no better, posting to others that their solution is obviously a task so grand that most who endeavor to attempt it fail (aka every candidate who doesn't get elected.) It reads like a very shallow attempt at pragmatism.

Act and the whole world will move.

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