How is this even remotely related to Hacker News? I guess if I really wanted to discuss this, I will rather go to /r/worldnews.
On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.
The release of major new documents about a major historical event that still has major side effects today easily clears that bar. What's not related are comments like "how is this even remotely related":
Please don't submit comments complaining that a submission is inappropriate for the site. If you think something is spam or offtopic, flag it by going to its page and clicking on the "flag" link.
Well good thing that's not happening.
Also its relevant because it contextualizes the whole us intelligence apparatus -a topic very relevant given the impact on internet business and traffic.
How can you not see that the rhetoric here has declined drastically over the past year? Do you disagree that there are significantly more political/non-technical stories reaching the front page?
Even if you agree with the gist arguments being made, disregard your personal politics and beliefs in coming to an assessment.
Your actions of creating a throwaway to preserve karma or keep people from knowing your actual thoughts are contributing to the problem you are complaining about.
How should I react to a brand new user account - actually a whole set of them (not that any others are you, not accusing you of that) spewing vitriol and vague stances, and engaging in seriously poor debate form? My initial and continued reaction is that they are some form of sockpuppetry.
Result thread on HN: nightmare.
For me, that suggests we keep it off the front page, but I'm just one me.
Seems plausible to me.
How is not propaganda and direct action not hacking the political system.
And
Politics is about establishing/modifying/eliminating rules that we all live by. Like the 4th amendment, to name something germane to an ongoing controversy. Going outside the rules often leads to bad things. That's why it's called "the rule of law".
> How is not propaganda and direct action not hacking the political system.
Because there's nothing particularly clever or unique or "hacky" about it. It's what groups like the NOW, NRA, EFF, Sierra Club, ACLU, etc.... etc.... do, and have been doing for years. It's a slog and involves lots of work, and money. That's how politics works when divisive issues are involved.
Why does a hack have to be clever or unique or even involve computers? I have done a few hacks to solve problems which were not pretty or particularly clever but they did solve the problem.
One "hack" from my early years was projecting film from an experimental rig's high speed camera against a wall covered with graph paper and performing manual digitization of a [REDACTED] by stepping the film though one frame at a time.
http://inrng.com/2013/08/on-forecasting/
That's cool?
How about Justin Bieber articles, if, say, a bunch of teenage girls sign up?
To the downvoters: there is absolutely nothing preventing this from happening outside of the moderators. Anyone can sign up for an account here.
On top of that, the 'shadow' moderation behind the scenes that makes posts go dead, nary any feedback or tranparency. I must grudgingly admit it would help in such a case.
Try again with a less reductio-ad-absudum scenario?
> Try again with a less reductio-ad-absudum scenario?
How about Chomsky material, and various articles about geopolitics ala reddit?
Yes.
> How about Justin Bieber articles, if, say, a bunch of teenage girls sign up?
Yes.
Yes, comments like that one will be downvoted.