[solid_fuel]

This is a prescient warning about yet another abuse of power by the Trump administration that we would all do well to heed, so I'm sure it will be flagged to death within an hour or two. Many people here like to consider themselves "above politics" and "apolitical", thinking that if they just ignore all noise they can just keep living their lives as if this is all normal. But it is not normal. I think the priority of the "Secretary of War" Pete Hegseth here is likely political surveillance and suppression at home, not autonomous nuclear weapons, but he is a known alcoholic who has repeatedly shown terrible judgement so I can't really rule anything out.

This administration is criminal and has repeatedly shown disdain for the fundamental rights enshrined in the constitution. Our democratic system is only as strong as the will of the people to protect it.

The call to action at the end of the article is good. I think it's worth calling your senators and house reps to speak up about this. Politicians in general are slimy and spineless, those seem to be traits required to succeed in politics, but as a consequence they do tend to notice when people really speak up and care about issues. As a survival instinct if nothing else.

[krapp]

This doesn't spark curiosity though. Good hackers don't care about any of this. Let's talk about compilers.

[atmavatar]

With all due respect, a lack of curiosity towards the moral implications of how tech is used in the world is an extremely irresponsible take for anyone working in the tech industry, which is presumably a large cohort here in Hacker News.

If you happen to be part of this cohort, you should absolutely always question the moral implications of any project you work on, and you're in a better position than the average person to fully explore the possible ways tech can be used and abused. I'd argue that should be considered one of the primary purposes of Hacker News.

[krapp]

I was being facetious.

And I assume the only reason this thread hasn't been flagged like every other "political" thread is that the current top comment references Dune.