Comment by jhart3333 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jhart3333 | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

You need to atone for your actions regarding Aaron Swartz sir. When I first arrived at Hacker News I happened upon a thread where Aaron was asking for help from his compatriots, his fellow hackers. What he got was a sharp stick in the eye. The top voted comment was by a fellow who had been an active and helpful participant in this forum wherein he called Aaron out for not covering his own expenses for his defense. We now know that Aaron had already spent his fortune defending himself from a prosecutor out of control, Stephen Heymann, and was literally broke. This is apparently standard procedure for the Justice Department: threaten defendants with financial ruin and many years in jail to get a plea. As a result they boast a rate of 90% pleading guilty in federal cases. Thus effectively removing one of the most cherished protections of our civil liberties: trial by a jury of your peers. You sir, shut down every thread in that post in which someone even suggested that Aaron might be in trouble. The fellow who posted the top comment on that thread decided to abstain from taking part this discussion forum following Aaron's suicide. You, however, did not. You carried on commenting and defending the very behavior of the Justice Department which, along with your actions, lead to Aaron's death.

I second this. It's no secret that I often find Thomas's writing and tone to be reprehensible. But his comments, then and now, with regard to Aaron are beyond the pale.

The only thing "preposterous"--to use Thomas's word--is that the debate here is a mostly semantic one about how much jail time Aaron "faced," rather than a substantive one about why he was facing any jail time at all. That's the debate that should be taking place, and it's one worth having.

It is absolutely true that Aaron was treated incredibly poorly by this community when he was most in need. See https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=5056279. Though much has since been deleted, I saw it happen, and I've been on the receiving end of similar treatment myself.

I'm planning to revisit this topic later. But for now, shame on those whose cynicism knows no bounds. And shame on Y Combinator for allowing a useful tool for discussion to devolve so clearly into a toxic mess.

Thank you. You give me hope.

The deleted comments on that thread are about 'edw519, not Aaron Swartz. The thread you've linked to to show Aaron's mistreatment happened after his suicide and thus can't illustrate any treatment of Aaron whatsoever. So I have to ask what you believe you "saw happen" there.

He committed suicide. You had as much of a part in his death as anyone else on the forum (i.e. no part at all).

You have no idea how depression works

Thank you for saying this. You are brave and beautiful.

Fuck you. I'm out.

Clearly, I've offended you. But I don't know why?

The tone of your comment is fawning and is easily confused with trolling, and "brave" is a word commonly used contrarily to indicate disdain for someone's actions. That, or you're actually just trolling.

I was about to donate $50 to Swartz's donation link until I read Tptacek comment about Swartz having had sold a startup before was hardly in a bad place to defend himself. I guess instead of thinking of donating I could have called him instead, maybe that might have helped.

EDIT: It was edw519, not tptacek: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4529609

I don't think you should feel any more comfortable attributing malice to Ed than to me. In fact, you should feel less comfortable; Ed's more sincere and thoughtful than I am.

There is no malice attributed to Ed. It was a thoughtful comment that made a lot of sense at the time, enough to convince me to pursue a course of action that I otherwise wouldn't have taken. No fault doesn't mean no effect. If I was Ed and had his perspective I'm sure I'd have said the same comment. That comment did have a part in affecting other individuals (well, me at least) deciding actions they'd take, especially because Ed is a respected member of the community, who is sincere and thoughtful.

No fault != No effect.

The point is each and every action we take in this world changes it in some way. And it's simplistic to say no one in this community had any part in Swartz's death.

"You sir" need to spell his name right: Swartz.

Is that all you are objecting to? The spelling of Aaron's name? Fixed by the way. I fixed Heymann's spelling too.

Your scolding, scapegoating tone is pretty awful, too, but you'd have to delete the whole comment to correct it. No actions of any commenters here "lead to Aaron's death".

You call me a scold and accuse me of scapegoating. You claim that "no actions of any commenters here lead to Aaron's death" and imply that Aaron should have been able to survive the onslaught of financial ruin and the prospect of years in prison along with having his compatriots on Hacker News tell him to fuck off. Clearly, you have no compassion for Aaron's plight. But I do. You live in the same world with me and we are all in this together whether you like it or not.

You have no idea what you're talking about.

Okay then. Call me crazy. I tried to reach out to you across the chasm of differing ideologies. Is this all you've got? No comprende?

Don't play like "who, me? I'm just a naive seeker-of-common-ground!"

You entered the conversation waving a bloody shirt to slur real people, present here, as being responsible for the death of another real person, who was once present here. You couldn't even spell your adoptive martyr's name right, yet you're passing judgement, and want to assign blame to commenters – commenters! – for a death.

Swartz was a principled free-speech absolutist – see http://bits.are.notabug.com/ – so you do him no honor when you suggest commenters owe penance, or silence, for expressing certain opinions.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com