I didn't mean in that sense. And, though I sense your question is somewhat sarcastic, I'll pose this to you. In the same way that a person joins the military to do a job, protect our interests both domestically and abroad, to the best of their ability, without the luxury of being able to question the mission; does anyone in the hacker news community feel the same way?

For example, do any data scientists feel like they could make a meaningful contribution toward increasing the performance of PRISM's algorithms, thereby reducing the number of false positives and helping keep the country safer.

The hacker ethos is one of distrust of big corp / government and a greater responsibility to the people and their rights. But, despite what we might like to think, people will die and maybe, just maybe, some of us might be able to help.

Granted, our values are only meaningful if we adhere to them during trying times. And, poorly paraphrased, those who seek to tradeoff their freedoms for security, get neither.

And thus, hopefully, you can see why I asked this question.