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Comment by enko | Hacker News Reader

> If you think things were better in the 70s, you really weren't paying attention.

Yeah, well I was 3.

Even so I don't seem to recall Ellsberg fleeing the country to escape absolute certain injustice. I don't recall his video interview with a foreign paper while he hid in China. Do you?

Something has definitely changed.

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Imagine how things might have turned out differently for Bradley Manning if he had a day or two to get out before his arrest.

Manning was a PFC in the Army. He wouldn't have been able to afford fleeing to Hong Kong or Moscow making less than $30,000 per year. He would have had a much more difficult time evading arrest.

How much money could such a fleeing really take? I mean, 30k isn't much at all, but would he even have been paying for rent or food while enlisted? If he managed to save up a few thousand for a few plane tickets and maybe a few days in a hotel on his own wallet, then that would be enough. I don't think a few thousand is a particularly unreasonable ask.

You're basing all this on a sample size of two.

How many famous whistleblowers are there?

For a broader sample base, you just widen your category a tiny little bit to Edward Snowden, Jeremy Hammond, Aaron Swartz, Bradley Manning and Jacob Appelbaum.

Aaron Swartz was a whistleblower?

That sample set would still be statistically insignificant.

I think the point is not that one should use larger samples, but rather than the conclusion is wrong since the sample is too small. Iow, there's no proof that the situation really changed in the US on the discussed topic.

You must mean, ones who are/were made public right?

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