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Comment by abandonliberty | Hacker News Reader

At which point does it become bad intrusion?

Is sharing ideas bad? Money? Offering, rather than being asked?

What about something like the concept of democracy. Or, since the intrinsic value of a concept may be difficult to understand, let's consider the US constitution. It likely cost quite a bit to produce in inflation adjusted dollars. What if they ask us for it, they seek it out themselves, or we give it to them?

I'm very confused. This is a very gray area with a fantastically slippery slope.

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I hate to answer on political threads because I'm always downvoted into oblivion, but there we go...

I'm writing from Brazil but lived for a while in Argentina and do business with people from other places in the subcontinent.

I grew up during the iron years, where the military dictatorships here tortured and killed hundreds of dissidents, so most parents educated us to fear the police and avoid talking about politics at all costs. I guess this is why people don't like to participate in the civic life (hell, in Brazil people avoid even condo meetings because "I don't like controversy").

I think lobbying is frowned upon here because most people equate it with public bribing (not too far from the truth), which leaves us we with traditional bribing only.

Go figure.

I always found the difference between Argentina and Brazil quite surprising. While I lived there (for seven years, in Santa Catarina) I felt like people were very divorced from politics, and would avoid the topic as much as possible. The only people that would engage me when I asked questions about politics (mostly because I wanted to learn the history of the country) were people from bigger cities (mostly Paulistas.)

Argentina went completely the opposite way: once the dictatorship was over, people became incredibly political because we wanted to avoid the same kind of political vacuum that created the first coup. As a result, most people in Argentina will argue about politics, even when they don't have a completely educated opinion on the matter (but hey, that's how we work on most stuff anyway, heh.)

Agreed on the conflation of lobbying with bribing. Unfortunately there's too much evidence suggesting that private interests putting money into politics is not a good idea.

Hi! Please read beyond the title that is simply clickbait. YC is not funding a party, they are backing a non for profit that develops democracyOS the software the party (as well as other parties around the world) uses.

It appears that I'm one of the few people here that did. I invite you to reread my comment in that light. Sharing services or even ideas could be construed as monetary support or excessive intrusion.

Hell even introducing democracy to a non-democratic place has been considered subversive.

"At which point does it become bad intrusion?"

When it starts.

"Is sharing ideas bad? Money? Offering, rather than being asked?"

Ideas? Probably not. Money? Very yes. And before you try, there is a huge difference between ideas and monetary support, and money is not speech.

"What about something like the concept of democracy."

You're not a member of that democracy. It's like Israel donating to political campaigns here in the US.

"I'm very confused. This is a very gray area with a fantastically slippery slope."

No, it really isn't.

Snarky. I'm curious if you believe that's an effective way to interact with another person? Would you treat someone like that in real life? How would you feel if someone responded to you that way? Would you find them convincing?

In any case, you completely missed the point. Based on your model, we're not giving them any money, so there is no problem. Right?

Or perhaps you'd actually like to RTFA and my comment, and make a constructive, intelligent, relevant reply.

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