
Leakers, privacy activists find new home in Berlin - chrisdl
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/europe/leakers-privacy-activists-find-new-home-in-berlin/2013/11/26/272dc7fc-4e1d-11e3-97f6-ed8e3053083b_story.html
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fembot__
I can't decide if this is happy or sad. On the one hand, it's great that a
country that was once dominated by a totalitarian regime is a hub of new ideas
about freedom of information and what government responsibility really means.
On the other hand, it's really sad that one of the countries who fought so
hard against that totalitarianism is no longer considered safe for these
people.

If we weren't fighting for a world where citizens can speak up about the
crimes of their governments, what were we fighting for?

~~~
barry-cotter
_If we weren 't fighting for a world where citizens can speak up about the
crimes of their governments, what were we fighting for?_

The destruction of our enemies, the annihilation of their ideology, the power
of our ruling class. Ideals are overwhelmingly window dressing or there would
be a hell of a lot more Edward Snowden's. Surely at least one per cent of the
people the NSA recruit each year are as close to being raging hippies as you
can get while joining the military industrial complex. And Snowden was the
second NSA whistle blower, what, ever?

Ideals are window dressing. The Democrats were anti-war, then Obama was
elected and the movement evaporated. This is how humans roll. Ideologues
mostly get beaten, shot, ignored. A prophet is never hailed in his own land.
Look at the vitriol RMS gets when he has been right again and again and again.

~~~
wreegab
Who is "RMS"?

Edit: Ah never mind, searched for "who is RMS", got Richard Stallman.

~~~
thaumasiotes
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stallman](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stallman)

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PavlovsCat
Speaking of privacy and Berlin, if you're interested in the former and located
in the latter, next weekend: [http://www.boell.de/en/whatever-happened-
privacy](http://www.boell.de/en/whatever-happened-privacy)

~~~
fHbjKlf6
Any idea on the number of attendees? i.e. is this expected to be just a very
small local meetup? Interested but would need to make extensive travel
arrangements asap.

