WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground • Hacker News Board

Re: WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

#21

Post by spacemanmatt » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 9:40 AM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #15

spacemanmatt wrote: post #5

I hope WikiLeaks moral high ground and/or credibilty are never huge factors. Their releases should probably always be treated with trust-but-verify disposition. Or maybe distrust-until-verified. The way I look at it, WikiLeaks is basically a parallel construction. We have no idea how or where the info came from, but if it's a map to the bodies, we go there and see if it's accurate info.

> I hope WikiLeaks moral high ground and/or credibilty are never huge factors. I think they are hugely important factors. Information is power and they have a huge amount of influence because of the trust people have placed in them. Like it or not, wikileaks will influence all of our lives. To say that they are a mere conduit and have no obligation to vet or squelch the information they've been given is to also assum…

I'm not sure what your disagreement is, beyond the value of credibility to WL.

They have been accused of releasing PII before, but they claim to be a journalistic organization. My take is, they're more concerned with delivering data dumps than sorting through terabytes to redact innocent details, because they're more of a dump site than a news site. And as such, it's raw information to consumers. I expect it to be pretty fully digested if I'm going to call it a news or analysis product.

Re: WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

#22

Post by jandrese » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 1:48 PM UTC

mywittyname wrote: post #17

jandrese wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, so the idea is that the Wikileaks Twitter account operator installed a neo-nazi chrome extension, then forgot he had it installed and tweeted out in confusion as to why people were tagged, thus outing himself as some sort of Hitler youth with bad memory? Calling that tweet anti-Semitic just doesn't make sense. It reads like someone trying way too hard to turn a molehill into a mountain. I'm guessing if we look…

Not really. The Chrome extension has kind of catapulted the idea of "(((name))) == jew" into internet nomenclature. But since isn't quite into popular culture yet, it holds this juxtaposition of being unambiguous, but with plausible deniability. "I didn't know this dog whistle made a sound."

If you didn't know a device was a dog whistle then that would be a perfectly valid statement.

Re: WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

#23

Post by jandrese » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 2:12 PM UTC

danso wrote: post #20

jandrese wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wait, so the idea is that the Wikileaks Twitter account operator installed a neo-nazi chrome extension, then forgot he had it installed and tweeted out in confusion as to why people were tagged, thus outing himself as some sort of Hitler youth with bad memory? Calling that tweet anti-Semitic just doesn't make sense. It reads like someone trying way too hard to turn a molehill into a mountain. I'm guessing if we look…

Uh. No, the Chrome extnsion had long been booted by the time this tweet came along. The meme is that Jewish folks and their allies would intentionally put "(((" and ")))" around their own names as a show of solidarity against this purported targeting. But the implicit meaning of those triple parentheses is, "this person is Jewish". Are you suggesting that the Wikileaks tweeter was just throwing that symbolism out the…

That doesn't make much sense either. Certainly Jews wouldn't be itching to put a metaphorical Star of David on their usernames? Historically that was not a good thing. I can see why Neo-Nazis would jump on it, but it seems strange for members of the community to voluntarily brand themselves in such a way.

I just got why it is six parenthesis though, just like the 6 pointed star.

Re: WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

#24

Post by bbctol » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 6:04 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #23

danso wrote: post #20

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Uh. No, the Chrome extnsion had long been booted by the time this tweet came along. The meme is that Jewish folks and their allies would intentionally put "(((" and ")))" around their own names as a show of solidarity against this purported targeting. But the implicit meaning of those triple parentheses is, "this person is Jewish". Are you suggesting that the Wikileaks tweeter was just throwing that symbolism out the…

That doesn't make much sense either. Certainly Jews wouldn't be itching to put a metaphorical Star of David on their usernames? Historically that was not a good thing. I can see why Neo-Nazis would jump on it, but it seems strange for members of the community to voluntarily brand themselves in such a way. I just got why it is six parenthesis though, just like the 6 pointed star.

It's a way of fucking with neo-nazis in turn. The three parentheses were originally meant as a sort of euphemism or code: rather than be publicly anti-semitic, people would put the parentheses to highlight how often Jews were being heard from, the idea being that once you notice the amount of Jewish voices around, you'll think this can't just be a coincidence (hence the name "Coincidence Detector.") It wasn't meant to be something those not in the know would get.

Jews putting three parentheses around their own names is a way of saying "I see what you're doing. I'm onto you." And non-Jews doing it is just to mess with them.

Re: WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

#25

Post by yongjik » Thu, Jul 28, 2016, 6:19 PM UTC

keane wrote: post #11

And then, inexplicably, the WikiLeaks official Twitter account also dove straight for naked anti-Semitism. The author, Emma Ellis, has no comprehension of the tweet in question. Understanding the background could have prevented this: 1. Neo-Nazis begin to point out to their supporters that the people they are discussing are Jews (or "Jew aiders and abettors" [sic]) by placing three brackets around their name. The sub…

A cute theory. Now please explain "have black-rim glasses" part.

WikiLeaks account looks up the profile pictures of many of its critics and notices that they all wear black-rim glasses, which strikes WikiLeaks admin as bizarre?

Re: WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

#26

Post by keane » Fri, Jul 29, 2016, 5:40 AM UTC

yongjik wrote: post #25

keane wrote: post #11

And then, inexplicably, the WikiLeaks official Twitter account also dove straight for naked anti-Semitism. The author, Emma Ellis, has no comprehension of the tweet in question. Understanding the background could have prevented this: 1. Neo-Nazis begin to point out to their supporters that the people they are discussing are Jews (or "Jew aiders and abettors" [sic]) by placing three brackets around their name. The sub…

A cute theory. Now please explain "have black-rim glasses" part. WikiLeaks account looks up the profile pictures of many of its critics and notices that they all wear black-rim glasses, which strikes WikiLeaks admin as bizarre?

"Black-rim glasses" is short hand for "hipsters", presumably meaning here well-educated liberal arts majors and aspirational future intelligentsia members.

Re: WikiLeaks Has Officially Lost the Moral High Ground

#27

Post by mywittyname » Wed, Aug 03, 2016, 4:59 PM UTC

jandrese wrote: post #22

mywittyname wrote: post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not really. The Chrome extension has kind of catapulted the idea of "(((name))) == jew" into internet nomenclature. But since isn't quite into popular culture yet, it holds this juxtaposition of being unambiguous, but with plausible deniability. "I didn't know this dog whistle made a sound."

If you didn't know a device was a dog whistle then that would be a perfectly valid statement.

Right. Hence the plausible deniability.