Like with Aaron Swartz “suicide” should be in quotes. I don’t believe in coincidences when the US government is involved.
James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
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Re: James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
#32Just when I clicked https://securedrop.org/, my company's corporate firewall blocked it. I can't start to imagine how much adversity the world has imposed onto these brave warriors.
Re: James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
#33This one really got to me, my confidence is shot when I see people I really respect struggling and succumbing to the same despair I feel sometimes. On an even darker note, anyone hear anything suspicious about this... ?
Here's the line of reasoning I use that keeps me in the game. Sorry if this is way off the deep end! :)
"The impediment to action advances action. The obstacle is the way." - Marcus Aurelius
In the face of overwhelming despair, there's always a choice you can take that is hope. Right action is training yourself to habitually choose that, and continue with it, regardless of the circumstances.
Those deepest moments of self-doubt, those are when you're able to have thoughts from that context that you couldn't when you're all happy and stuff. Those moments themselves are intrinsically valuable to be present in, and pay attention to. And by inducing them in yourself and choosing to behave properly against them, you can train yourself before the big moment comes.
I feel like this might be crazy and overly intense, but I can't really conceive of any other aspirational way of existing, so I hope its somewhat helpful!
Re: James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
#34First Aaron Swartz, now James Dolan. Sad to see good people like them leave us. Hope they inspire some other wonderful people to follow their steps. EDIT: Well, obviously not all their steps.
Well... maybe not all the steps.
Anything can be funny given the right person saying it at the appropriate time in the right context
Seeing a suicide joke from a person I don't know in the Hacker News thread about the death an individual I respect an hour after it's been released is not my idea of funny.
Re: James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
#35Now we have two suicides of people working in this facet of human right activism. At what number should we start thinking about foul play? There are ways to push people to such extreme acts.
Re: James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
#36It’s terrible that he served our country and was thrown away. He is a true American and patriot.
Re: James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
#37Earlier quoted context omitted.
> something more objective You mean like rampant, baseless speculation with no knowledge of any surrounding facts?
Healthy suspicion is not baseless speculation. Often conspiracies are only unmasked when someone starts from a position of intuitive suspicion otherwise unsupported by evidence and starts digging. It is only in the digging that evidence is unearthed. The fact that both Aaron Swartz and James Dolan committed suicide does, indeed, smell. In the past, our government has shown itself capable of [grabbing people off the s…
> The fact that both Aaron Swartz and James Dolan committed suicide does, indeed, smell. In the past, our government has shown itself capable of [grabbing people off the street for mind control experiments](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_MKUltra).
Or maybe it's that there's a high incidence of mental illness among particularly intelligent humans, and even more particularly cryptography/privacy engineers?
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alan_Turing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Len_Sassaman
The problem isn't some secret nefarious government mind control program. The problem is that we, as a society, are still very bad at caring for our most vulnerable people.
More importantly, the timing here is suspect: Many HN users are just now finding out about his death, and need time to mourn. Bringing up conspiracy theories-- even if they were true-- is poor form.
Re: James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
#38This one really got to me, my confidence is shot when I see people I really respect struggling and succumbing to the same despair I feel sometimes. On an even darker note, anyone hear anything suspicious about this... ?
I find talking about it helps. The feelings pass if you allow yourself time to heal, and talking to a coach, a therapist, deep diving with others going through similar stuff helps pass/break through it. But this life we live and all the struggles are all part of the journey. there's no end-destination free of inner conflict. It's recognizing that human suffering is universal, and having compassion for yourself. Throu…
Having compassion for yourself is so important, and so hard to do. When my therapist first mentioned this concept to me, it felt so foreign. It hit me like a ton of bricks that even though my personal issues are far from my fault, and there's no possible way I could have been at fault (childhood abuse that I've struggled with my entire life), I was blaming myself for every aspect of my problems.
I'm still struggling, a lot, but realizing that I was my own worst critic was a huge step in starting to deal with my issues.
Re: James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
#39I'm really not familiar with SecureDrop or James Dolan's activism. Does anyone familiar with him want to summarize for me/us?
Re: James Dolan, co-creator of SecureDrop, has died
#40Does anyone know if James had taken a short hiatus between jobs to travel by motorcycle for a while in Southern California? I ran it someone one day at The Rock Store that had worked with Aaron Swartz and a friend and I had a great conversation with him and I’m now wondering whether it was James.