7 ms·

I wonder how much blackmail material he was shown just before he dramatically reversed his opinion. I am very cynical. But then a long chain of recorded histor

I wonder how much blackmail material he was shown just before he dramatically reversed his opinion. I am very cynical. But then a long chain of recorded history rewards my point of view.

not_kurt_godel 9y ago
I wonder how many PR bots the NSA has on sites like Hacker News.
- moftz 9y ago
  They are a government agency with a nearly endless supply of money granted to them by Congress every year without fail. They don't need to do PR for anyone except to gain more employees.
  - not_kurt_godel 9y ago
    > They don't need to do PR for anyone except to gain more employees. Which is exactly why I implied they would be primarily doing PR on sites with high concentrations of people with the skillsets they need...such as Hacker News. This would help them both directly - individuals seeing good PR and thinking "hey, I could work there" - and indirectly by way of combating the general negative perceptions of the NSA in the tech community since the Snowden leaks.
  - mistermann 9y ago
    Not now, but buying a little insurance on that seems prudent.
  - therealdrag0 9y ago
    There was an article recently on HN about how they're losing talent.
  - musage 9y ago
    They don't need to be crooks, either, doesn't seem to stop them. They don't need to come up with childish logos combined with super cereal latin text, but they're still doing it; something like "Total Information Awareness" isn't the expression of a need, it's the symptom of serious issues. If they knew what they needed they wouldn't be doing what they're doing, and wouldn't need to circle the wagons of the "Intelligence Community" for emotional support. Do companies that pollute the environment and obsess about environmental activists so much that their undercover people outnumber the undercover agents of intelligence agencies NEED to be so very pathetic? I'd say they "just" need to stop whatever they think they are doing and be grateful towards those giving them a hint, but nope -- they can't eat what's on their plate, so they shit in our food. And anyone even dreaming of suggesting putting first things first probably wouldn't make it past apprentice in most such orgs.
PopsiclePete 9y ago
After Trump won, I desperately wanted the "grassy knoll video" and "shadow government" stuff to actually be real. Maybe they've just been really effective at making people think that they're all-powerful entities that make people disappear on a whim.
mvkel 9y ago
You should really meet someone who works at NSA. Snowden worked there before he left. It’s generally a group of ridiculously smart people. Policy is where stuff gets bungled.

I wonder how much blackmail material he was shown just before he dramatically reversed his opinion. I am very cynical. But then a long chain of recorded history rewards my point of view.

not_kurt_godel 9y ago

I wonder how many PR bots the NSA has on sites like Hacker News.

moftz 9y ago
They are a government agency with a nearly endless supply of money granted to them by Congress every year without fail. They don't need to do PR for anyone except to gain more employees.
- not_kurt_godel 9y ago
  > They don't need to do PR for anyone except to gain more employees. Which is exactly why I implied they would be primarily doing PR on sites with high concentrations of people with the skillsets they need...such as Hacker News. This would help them both directly - individuals seeing good PR and thinking "hey, I could work there" - and indirectly by way of combating the general negative perceptions of the NSA in the tech community since the Snowden leaks.
- mistermann 9y ago
  Not now, but buying a little insurance on that seems prudent.
- therealdrag0 9y ago
  There was an article recently on HN about how they're losing talent.
- musage 9y ago
  They don't need to be crooks, either, doesn't seem to stop them. They don't need to come up with childish logos combined with super cereal latin text, but they're still doing it; something like "Total Information Awareness" isn't the expression of a need, it's the symptom of serious issues. If they knew what they needed they wouldn't be doing what they're doing, and wouldn't need to circle the wagons of the "Intelligence Community" for emotional support. Do companies that pollute the environment and obsess about environmental activists so much that their undercover people outnumber the undercover agents of intelligence agencies NEED to be so very pathetic? I'd say they "just" need to stop whatever they think they are doing and be grateful towards those giving them a hint, but nope -- they can't eat what's on their plate, so they shit in our food. And anyone even dreaming of suggesting putting first things first probably wouldn't make it past apprentice in most such orgs.

PopsiclePete 9y ago

After Trump won, I desperately wanted the "grassy knoll video" and "shadow government" stuff to actually be real. Maybe they've just been really effective at making people think that they're all-powerful entities that make people disappear on a whim.

mvkel 9y ago

You should really meet someone who works at NSA. Snowden worked there before he left. It’s generally a group of ridiculously smart people. Policy is where stuff gets bungled.