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They Killed My Lawyer

foreignpolicy.com

21–30 of 72 posts

Re: They Killed My Lawyer

#21
post #20

Perhaps I am missing something obvious, but how is this HN material ?

Please, please, let us not start a "not Hacker News" meta-discussion. If you think this post is egregiously off-topic, flag it, don't complain in the thread.

I did flag it, but I am genuinely curious if I am missing some obvious reason why this has 50+ upvotes.

Re: They Killed My Lawyer

#22
post #11
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wow, it sounds like you actually condone the spirit of what happened. As an American it's strange to imagine celebrating rule of force over rule of law. The US falls woefully short at times, but I can't imagine anyone cheering fraudulent theft of tax money to pander to voters. I also find it hard to believe someone would behave as the lawyer in this story did merely over ill-intentioned greed.

>>As an American it's strange to imagine celebrating rule of force over rule of law What about Al Capone? The guy was caught on tax evasion charges, was US government's rule of force justified in his case?

What does that have to do with anything? He was in fact guilty of tax evasion, which was in fact against the law.

Re: They Killed My Lawyer

#23
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia also says: "Browder exposed management corruption and corporate malfeasance in these partly state-owned companies"

There is plenty of corruption everywhere in Russia. There is no point in trying to find saints or sinners in the story. Rather one should recognize the hypocrisy of kettle calling a pot black.

[deleted]

Re: They Killed My Lawyer

#24
post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Please, please, let us not start a "not Hacker News" meta-discussion. If you think this post is egregiously off-topic, flag it, don't complain in the thread.

I did flag it, but I am genuinely curious if I am missing some obvious reason why this has 50+ upvotes.

Something so viscerally horrible sets off an empathy reaction in many people, and it's not obviously off-topic as it is well-written, in-depth, and not something covered on TV news. Not to mention it does have a connection to entrepreneurship, capitalism, and general business.

Re: They Killed My Lawyer

#25
post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wikipedia also says: "Browder exposed management corruption and corporate malfeasance in these partly state-owned companies"

There is plenty of corruption everywhere in Russia. There is no point in trying to find saints or sinners in the story. Rather one should recognize the hypocrisy of kettle calling a pot black.

So are you condoning what happened?

Re: They Killed My Lawyer

#26
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did flag it, but I am genuinely curious if I am missing some obvious reason why this has 50+ upvotes.

Something so viscerally horrible sets off an empathy reaction in many people, and it's not obviously off-topic as it is well-written, in-depth, and not something covered on TV news. Not to mention it does have a connection to entrepreneurship, capitalism, and general business.

[deleted]

Re: They Killed My Lawyer

#28
post #4

>>It is also a story about how Stalinism and the gulags are alive and well in Russia today. It is difficult to convey the depth of my disgust after reading the above sentence from the first paragraph of the article. I share both Russian and Jewish heritages and to my dismay I frequently encounter writings that belittle the history of Holocaust. In comparison, Stalinism and gulags are less known to the Western audienc…

[deleted]

Re: They Killed My Lawyer

#29
post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I did flag it, but I am genuinely curious if I am missing some obvious reason why this has 50+ upvotes.

Something so viscerally horrible sets off an empathy reaction in many people, and it's not obviously off-topic as it is well-written, in-depth, and not something covered on TV news. Not to mention it does have a connection to entrepreneurship, capitalism, and general business.

[deleted]

Re: They Killed My Lawyer

#30
post #4

>>It is also a story about how Stalinism and the gulags are alive and well in Russia today. It is difficult to convey the depth of my disgust after reading the above sentence from the first paragraph of the article. I share both Russian and Jewish heritages and to my dismay I frequently encounter writings that belittle the history of Holocaust. In comparison, Stalinism and gulags are less known to the Western audienc…

Give me a break. This is utter crap.

You're obviously using the hyperbole at the start of the article to score points. You go on to impugn the character of the author, while not directly addressing the thesis at any point in your responses. You're relying on people to yield so as not to offend you -- but that's crap, they really shouldn't care. "hurtful" indeed...

What they can argue is that because of a bit of hyperbole at the start, you've implied the article can't make any valid points. It must be entirely wrong. Nice rhetorical trick, but quite insane -- and I argue much more disgusting than what is frankly an understandable gaff by the author at the start.

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