Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site • Hacker News Board

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#171

Post by ModernMech » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

prions wrote: post #110

anovikov wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I consider myself a liberal, and i agree with the point that college is net detrimental to society. It makes people waste their best years, teaches them mainly, useless stuff, barely breaks even in terms of lifetime earnings, and makes people bitter because they feel they are not valued by society the way they believe they should. This world needs a lot more new plumbers than new liberal arts majors. It is the societ…

Youre underestimating the value of a college degree. Research like [1] shows that degree holders have significantly more lifetime earnings than high school. You also miss how the democratization of education has benefited our society and helped lift millions out of subsistence lifestyles and class lock-in. "This world needs a lot more new plumbers than new liberal arts majors" This is a completely subjective and poli…

Many in the tech community turn exclusively to technology to solve every problem. It doesn’t occur to such people that e.g. sociologists, who study problems of society as a discipline, have any answers whatsoever to our problems as a society. To them, sociology is just another useless liberal arts degree without job prospects.

In my opinion, if we listened to more socieologists instead of the Zuckerbergs and Bezoses of the world, we’d be much better off as a country.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#172

Post by leephillips » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

I don’t observe that to be generally true. Each party has its favorite science facts to deny. Republicans tend to invent controversies in climate science and evolution in order to misstate the types of uncertainties that exist in those fields. Democrats, increasingly, like to deny the basic reality of embryonic development and sex in humans, that can be found in any basic biology textbook.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#173

Post by TheCondor » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:24 PM UTC

lowkey_ wrote: post #111

otterley wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I largely agree with the sentiment that we need more plumbers than liberal arts graduates. One answer, though, is "why not be both?" Post-secondary education, regardless of the specific major a student chooses, does provide a significant benefit to society: especially in the early years, it teaches students how to think critically. Perhaps this skill could be taught earlier during secondary education, but at least in…

> it teaches students how to think critically Most colleges have done the opposite in recent years. They provide echo-chambers for emotionally-fueled pseudoscience. I've seen this while spending time at Boston University, Harvard, Brown, and Columbia. It's frightening how little people are able to think or question anything once they've gone through the college system. They become frightened by and angry at truths th…

Please elaborate.. Did these people have world views that they didn't wish to have challenged and feel it was detrimental to challenge themselves? Or were they actually taught something detrimental?

What is the nature of this pseudo-science?

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#174

Post by sour-taste » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:25 PM UTC

_ktx2 wrote: post #51

pianoben wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The background with Parson is that he is overtly hostile to the "blue" cities of St. Louis and Kansas City, and favors the more rural parts of the state. He has an especially hostile relationship with the press in those cities. It doesn't surprise me that he'd want to make hay with this - he can promote himself, damage his political enemies, and look tough to his base, which (generally speaking) doesn't consist of pr…

> (if you want evidence of his antipathy to Missouri's cities, look no further than covid vaccine distribution - St. Louis had maybe one single site, but rural areas had more vaccines than they could use. My elderly parents had to drive for hours to get to one of those underused sites because there simply weren't any vaccines to be found in the metro area.) I lived in SoCal at the time and had to do the same thing. I…

Hello neighbor!

I had to do the same thing and drive out to Julien. I live in San Diego too.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#175

Post by fighterpilot » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:25 PM UTC

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

The left has its fair share of growing anti-science sentiment. I agree it's quite a bit worse with Republicans but it is growing in both directions, which is a concern. People pick their science a la carte as long as it confirms what they want.

- Denial of the science of sex differences

- Denial of the science of intelligence differences, the relevance of intelligence in life outcomes and how heritable it is

- Belief without evidence that black/white racial differences in outcome are completely due to racism and not partly due to a byproduct of cultural differences

- Anti-nuclear sentiment that wildly exaggerates the risks of nuclear power

- Historical revisionism (e.g 1619 project and NYT begrudgingly making stealth edits)

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#176

Post by tshaddox » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:25 PM UTC

Someone1234 wrote: post #24

Bhilai wrote: post #3

Here is a potentially dumb idea: Before someone can declare candidacy for a public office, they should pass an exam that tests them on general and basic knowledge on a wide variety of topics that proves that the person has some level of general awareness of tech that is so ubiquitous.

Who gets to set the test? This is a well-intentioned but very wrong-headed idea. History is littered with examples of how these things are abused. It is up to voters to evaluate their chosen candidates for their qualities and qualifications for the job. The biggest problem right now is that too many vote on party lines instead of for candidates based on their qualities.

There are already requirements for most elected officials. Age, citizenship, and residency requirements are common. Thus the slippery slope argument "if we have any requirements at all that's a slippery slope to having arbitrarily bad requirements" already applies equally to the current situation as it would to any proposal to change the requirements.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#177

Post by Koshkin » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:26 PM UTC

It would seem to me that, in theory, it is OK to discover a security flaw by accident, but it’s not OK to be proactively looking for flaws, even out of curiosity, or try to exploit them for any purpose, however innocuous, unless you are a designated security specialist.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#178

Post by badRNG » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:26 PM UTC

TheOtherHobbes wrote: post #119

nrmitchi wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This situation is keeping his name in the spotlight, and people will, in general, be more likely to vote for names that they recognize. I don't believe that there is any other reason here.

I would assume this is pure politics. He knows perfectly well who is to blame, but he's using the situation opportunistically to further his own career. The issue isn't just that he's objectively and morally wrong, it's that most voters don't see through the grandstanding. All they see - and all they want to see - is a rich old white dude punching down at some college-educated kid who thinks he's clever enough to hav…

>Although I'd hope someone like the EFF would turn up with some heavy hitter experts to add some friction to the self-serving bad take.

I think having "fact checkers" and "experts" debunk his claims will ultimately gain him support among his constituents. There's a sharp trend towards anti-expert, anti-intellectual sentiment that has assisted him throughout the pandemic, and there's no reason that I can see to believe that it won't serve him equally as well on this issue. We'll see, but I think this movement isn't something that will die out with the pandemic, but something that we will see permeate other areas of discourse.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#179

Post by hardwaregeek » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:26 PM UTC

anovikov wrote: post #62

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

I consider myself a liberal, and i agree with the point that college is net detrimental to society. It makes people waste their best years, teaches them mainly, useless stuff, barely breaks even in terms of lifetime earnings, and makes people bitter because they feel they are not valued by society the way they believe they should. This world needs a lot more new plumbers than new liberal arts majors. It is the societ…

We'd need to significantly improve high schools before considering eliminating college. Let's face it. We can't expect American high schools to teach students anything about the world. We've had schools try to spin the slave trade as sending "workers" to the New World. We've had attempts to show "both sides" of the Holocaust. And yes, college isn't perfect at teaching liberal arts, but it's better than not learning at all.

I don't mean to straw man you, so I'm not implying this is what you said, but a liberal arts education is extremely important! Where else do you learn that racism isn't just slurs, that a bus route can be racist, that a health policy can be racist? Where can you get introduced to writers of color, to works by people from all times and all races? Where can you get an in depth view into how art reflects society and society reflects art?

Even if you don't step into a classroom, college teaches so much by forcing students out of their hometown and out of the communities. One of the biggest issues with racism and discrimination and partisanship is that most people haven't met the other side. College is a way to meet the other side in one's formative years.

I'd argue that college is the single most liberalizing institution in people's lives. No other institution takes students, transports them into a (hopefully) diverse, intellectually stimulating center and teaches them about society.

Re: Gov Parson pushes to prosecute reporter who found security flaw in state site

#180

Post by kravens_last » Thu, Oct 21, 2021, 5:27 PM UTC

lancemurdock wrote: post #125

abvdasker wrote: post #47

I'll risk making this a partisan issue and say the anti-intellectual and anti-science bent seems increasingly prevalent among Republicans like Mike Parson and their constituencies. One of the most shocking statistics I've seen recently is the Pew poll which shows that in the space of 2 years Republican attitudes about higher education saw a 20-point swing such that that most Republican voters now believe college is n…

I suppose I fall in the a republican camp so i'll bite. College is too expensive for what it gives. You gain a ton in maturity, soft skill building but unless you're in a STEM major, the material does not prepare you for the real world. Depending on what my kid wants to study, I will not be encouraging college. So much journalism is so insanely biased. I respectfully disagree to anyone who thinks Biden is treated the…

You're probably completely unaware that the excessive money printing (quantitative easing) you seemingly blame on democrats was proposed and initially implemented by by a Bush appointee (Bernanke) and then more recently and more famously done by a Trump appointee (Powell), both in cases where the alternative would've been a global financial catastrophe not seen since the great depression.