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Comment by tomohelix | Hacker News Reader

I am not sure how much I trust this explanation. A lone discord user was responsible for a top secret leak because of some banal online argument? Doesn't sound right. Almost too convenient to hide some deeper systematic cracks in the intelligence agencies and their incompetence in securing their own secrets.

I know, don't attribute malice where stupidity suffice. But something just nagging me about how inane this whole explanation is.

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I can believe it. This happens in war thunder all the time

In 2021, https://kotaku.com/war-thunder-military-documents-classified...

Also in 2021, https://kotaku.com/classified-military-documents-leaked-agai...

In 2022, https://kotaku.com/war-thunder-tank-classified-military-docu...

In 2023, https://kotaku.com/war-thunder-military-documents-classified...

Those are all different instances

A quote

> his latest case involves a player getting into an argument on the game’s forums about the in-game depiction of France’s Leclerc Main Battle Tank. To settle the disagreement, they posted a part of what was essentially the tank’s manual, prompting the forum’s moderators to wonder just what the fuck is wrong with these people

War Thunder's twitter account is even commenting on it now: https://twitter.com/WarThunder/status/1645727948949934082

Ehn, the world be that way.

I can definetly believe that someone heavily invested in an argument on social media might do something like leaking docs on what they assumed was a niche audience.

I've seen enough flamewars even on HN that have shown those kinds of characteristics (and Ik I myself have been guilty of getting overly invested in threads as well).

Humans be humans I guess.

Also from the demographics and description, I think the leaker may have been younger (early to late 20s). Being in your 20s, isolated on a base, and being bored can make people get overinvested in online communities.

Did you read the article, though? The argument thing was on the Minecraft room; the leaks were reportedly more of a long-term thing with intel shared out of a sense of “community” and “edification” on a smaller group.

Tbf, I did not, WaPo's paywall is aggressive.

I'm just speaking from experience.

I've known people very close to me who have leaked stuff in this manner before (nothing this classified though - more like non-classified gossip you'd read in Politico or Staffer Twitter quoting "an anonymous source working closely to the XYZ Subcommittee").

The leaker ofc made a horrible pattern of decisions, but it's kind of easy to see where they came from if they're dunking on friends or acquaintances in a semi-competitive manner

this is just how things are now. as an older zoomer ive learned not underestimate the breadth and depth of the demographic that is gamers, seems like just about every single male is one to a certain extent, transcending just about all the cultural and social divisions I can think of.

What other third place do people in our 20s have nowadays?!?

We've all entered our own silos and are much more insular now - either due to financial reasons or social dislocation. Also a bunch of us in that same age demographic were fucked big time by the pandemic, and most of our communications and friendships are online and distance based now.

I agree it sounds completely nuts, but it might be in the "so insane, it must be true" category. Time will tell, I guess, but I'm actually leaning towards "military dude wants to impress his online pals by leaking intel simply for the lols." Because that's sort of the world we live in nowadays.

It's not without precedent; there is a long history of soldiers leaking classified info to win some banal online argument. Has happened 10 times in the last few years with the game War Thunder.

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