
Aaron Swartz case an issue in Massachusetts Senate race - jacoblyles
http://www.boston.com/news/local/massachusetts/2013/03/23/aaron-swartz-case-issue-mass-senate-race/9vQsMYEFGFYWkwMsZRLC1L/story.html
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spoiledtechie
Its nice to see the GOP getting behind this rather than the Dems. I dont mean
to bring up politics, but this article invokes the discussion. I would have
expected this kind of support from the Dems but not the GOP. Biggest reason I
say that is because the online community has mostly always swung to the left
rather than to the right.

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Danieru
Hello spoiledtechie,

I wanted to mention why I downvoted. I am worried someone will misunderstand
if I follow usual protocol and skip commenting.

The reason I downvoted your comment is because I think it crosses the
"interesting to hackers" and "politics" greyline. As you know politics
permeates society and avoiding all politics is just not possible. I understand
that your comment was in good faith and not in the least bit antagonizing. I
am conservative as well and it is always nice to see politicians doing the
right thing. Double so if a group has often ignored their founding principles.

The core reason for my objection is that we must be active in the fight
against conversation degradation. To this end I hope we will avoid politics
even if the article itself is political.

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danilocampos
> To this end I hope we will avoid politics even if the article itself is
> political.

So if the article is about politics, specifically, and how that involves tech,
what's to be done? A comment thread about kung pao chicken? That's not useful.

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Anechoic
Until there are TV & radio ads addressing the issue, I wouldn't count on the
case taking up too much mindshare.

Let's see if it comes up during the debates in Springfield (a poor city with a
large minority population).

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visarga
They are making use of Aaron's case for their own purposes.

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jacoblyles
Yes. They are trying to win our votes by taking our side. How devious.

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pyre
They're crying crocodile tears for Aaron, I'm sure. :P

You say that as if politicians haven't taken positions in the past just to win
elections (with no intention of following through, or without changing their
beliefs on the larger issues raised).

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jacoblyles
And I'm sure the tears of Democrats are genuine :p

Politicians certainly fail to follow through on their promises. But by
publicly supporting an issue they give opponents a way to attack them if they
don't follow through. So there is some worth to making a public commitment,
especially if it is frequent and loud.

~~~
pyre

      | And I'm sure the tears of Democrats are
      | genuine :p
    

Personally, _any_ politician that jumps on this is just trying to ride it into
(or back into) office. Just another way to sling mud at "the other guy."

