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Comment by eltondegeneres | Hacker News Reader

Reasons not to build a "defence" startup: your work will directly or indirectly be used to kill humans.

I'm sure the various autocratic, dystopian states around the world that would love to see functioning democracies be smouldering piles of rubble are hoping that we think this way...because they certainly aren't thinking that way.

that's not entirely true. Did funds lots of very interesting research that enhances quality of life for citizens.

But yes an absurd amount of capital gets spent on, well, defense!

How do you prevent yourself from being nuked ("just be nice" won't cut it)? I think mutually assured destruction has proven its merit at this point.

Iraq and Afghanistan weren't about to nuke the US. I don't see the moral justification for work going into those wars, even if there is a possibility that it might not be used solely for invasions, imperialism and bombing weddings.

We are talking about defense in this thread, not offense, but you are in a way proving my point. If Ukraine had nukes would Russia have invaded? Would the US have invaded Iraq if it had nukes?

What? The defense industry is not just for actual defense though, it's just a euphemism for military industry. Am I misunderstanding something?

Just gonna point out a few options to prevent future invasions like Iraq and Afghanistan:

1) Elect politicians who will not invade Iraq and Afghanistan.

2) Don't have a military and hope you're not the next Iraq or Afghanistan.

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