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by moxiemk1 5351 days ago
I think it's highly detrimental to peace to equate "bringing sensitive government documents and other material to light" with making the world a better place.

I agree that it very often is, but if we make this equation, then yet another term, "peace" will have zero meaning, co-opted by those who will push their own agenda by making it sound like that of others.

1 comments

Sunlight is the best disinfectant[0]

Your second paragraph is so lacking in cynicism I can barely parse it. Three[1] people have received the Nobel Peace Prize for not being George W. Bush, and you think "peace" can be an apolitical concept?

[0]Belief that members or agents of the government are more corrupt than average not included.

[1]Carter, Gore, Obama

The Nobel Committee is indeed one of the people who is destroying the meaning of important words, in this case "Peace".

As I said, I do agree that transparency is most often on the side of right, but I believe that making statements like the one I replied to is the reason why being among the cynics seems to me to be a lesser evil than being a part of the problem.

Sometimes here on Hacker News people get lambasted for excessive pedantry, but I think in this case, being pedantic about what we allow to be said unchallenged is crucial to having any claim to being a place of nuanced ideas and thoughtful solutions.