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Comment by hugofirth | Hacker News Reader

Making inflammatory comments with no supporting material, reasoning or other form of exposition does nothing to inform or encourage useful discourse.

Even if you had a point (I'm not claiming anything one way or the other) that point is poorly served by a flippant passing comment. Why would being a wealthy country make someone more adept at misleading their populace? If they were, what would be the benefit?

As a PhD student doing research in data analysis, I support governments being open with data whole heartedly. UK government schemes like this [1] are invaluable.

[1]: http://data.gov.uk/

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Well put. I'm definitely a "never assume the government is telling the truth" person, but even if finishingmove were right in this case (I don't think the idea that wealthy governments release false data explicitly for the purpose of misleading people when they could just not release it is compelling, but hey, they've probably done stranger things), the GP hasn't even hinted at context or support for such a statement here.

"I don't think the idea that wealthy governments release false data explicitly for the purpose of misleading people when they could just not release it is compelling"

Do you often find yourself taken by surprise?

in·flam·ma·to·ry

1. Arousing passion or strong emotion, especially anger, belligerence, or desire.

My comment was definitely not inflammatory in nature. Being the author of my comment, I'm pretty sure I have higher authority than you to be the judge of this. It was meant to be thought-provoking, in a very casual way. But that doesn't seem to be appreciated on HN (my general impression) Hint: don't take everything so seriously.

"Why would being a wealthy country make someone more adept at misleading their populace? If they were, what would be the benefit? As a PhD student..."

A wise man once said (can't remember where the quote originates from), "The purpose of doing a PhD is learning how to learn" (paraphrased). I hope that the experience will help you answer your own questions, in a few years. For now, just use your imagination...

You asked. I answered.

Arguing that, as the author of your comment, you are more capable of judging how inflammatory it is than the comment's readers is a logical fallacy. How inflammatory something is would be entirely dependent on how it is received by its audience.

Furthermore, responding to my questions by patronisingly telling me to "use my imagination" conveniently avoids those questions. Hint: DBAD ;)

So you confirm that you are one of these angry HN readers? :) I don't see how you could have found yourself angry by my comment, other than being angry already... :) Cheers then.

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