US bars friends over Twitter joke • Hacker News Board

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#111

Post by Vivtek » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:00 PM UTC

khuey wrote: post #69

icebraining wrote: post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That period includes the internment of 110000 Japanese Americans in War Relocation Camps without any kind of due process. Land of the free, unless your parents were born in the wrong country.

Well, that depends on whether he meant when we gave black people the right to vote on paper (after the Civil War) or when black people effectively got the right to vote (1965). I assumed he meant the latter ;-)

Actually, right after the Civil War, I've read that things were pretty different - I know there were a lot of blacks who moved into Indiana and were accepted quite warmly by the people here, up into the 1880's and the Klan really got underway.

By 1930, of course, the KKK had a significant political presence in Indiana, and at this point, white rural Hoosiers hate blacks with the best of them, but I was surprised to learn that that attitude came well after the end of the Civil War.

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#112

Post by netcan » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:00 PM UTC

perfunctory wrote: post #12

Comments on the article's page are even scarier than the article itself.

some gems:

serves them right for putting up stupid comments like that on a public site where the world can see

At least the yanks have got it right. If that was here, it would be completly different... they would be welcome even more with a brass band waiting for them at arrivals with hand outs, benefits and housing all sorted for them

Perhaps if they spoke or 'tweeted' to each other in proper English........................... Or is it just me getting old? : )

No doubt that Twitter has replaced Facebook as THE medium for proving yourself to be a prime CHUMP....

How are Americans supposed to know that its British Slang. They did the right thing by detaining them as they believed they were a threat. The problem is that since Facebook, Twitter etc, people enter their whole lives on the internet, when 99.999999% of people really dont care. Its acutally good to see that America's Security is high that two ordinary brummies saying something on Twitter was picked up and they were questioned about it. Wish Britain had that kind of security.

Twitter/Facebook is not private, its public. Get some common sense people.

serves them right, the bloody idiots. what kind of morons post those kinds of statements ?

After the amount of people who died on 9/11, of course they are twitchy when it comes to intercepting perceived threats. Terrorist don't come with a big sign on their head! So if a couple of idiots who thought it was funny to 'joke' about destroying someone’s country on a 'public' network lose their holiday that's hard luck, but the US probably feel that, better safe than sorry, is the more important option. Not really for us to preach when we can't even deport those we know to be a threat!

This is terrifying. It's like Idiocracy!

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#113

Post by Vivtek » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:01 PM UTC

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #17

corin_ wrote: post #4

Have no more fear, your country is safe from all terrorists who tweet about their plans. Truthfully, I wouldn't have expected this from America, they're the kind of jokes I could imagine myself making on Twitter, but will be careful not to before future trips there.. This is pretty much what I think of when going to China, and what makes me specially careful not to say anything the Chinese could take as a threat. Heh…

These stories we keep seeing do the US no good at all. From the outside the you look don't look very attractive to visit or do business with.

I have to say that from the inside, we don't look all that attractive any more, either. Do us a favor and boycott us loudly - money's the only thing our government actually understands.

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#114

Post by Vivtek » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:05 PM UTC

sudonim wrote: post #106

exDM69 wrote: post #102

I work for a US company in Europe and I'm seriously concerned about my security if and when the time comes for me to visit the company HQ. I'm a completely harmless person, but sometimes I look like a bearded pirate (arr!), my passport photo looks like I'm a recently escaped convict, I've ordered flight simulators and aviation maps with my credit card from the US and my police file mentions a short wrestling match wi…

I live in the US. Someone put me on a list of people who retweet wikileaks tweets and I'm concerned. Our policy towards visitors and immigrants has been increasingly hostile. Citizens get it a little better, but increasingly bad too. Minor quibble with your last sentence: > I would not consider going to the US for a vacation. Thankfully there are five other continents to visit. Mexico, Canada, Cuba, Dominican Republi…

If you're going to list Cuba and the Dominican Republic, you shouldn't leave out Jamaica and all the Lesser Antilles - I highly recommend visits to any of them!

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#115

Post by Vivtek » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:08 PM UTC

GFischer wrote: post #93

drats wrote: post #26

Has anyone done a study of how much this is damaging the tourism industry in the USA? I have 1001 places I want to go, but all those in the USA shifted down a lot lower on the list after they started a lot of the airport security/TSA measures. Airport security stuff annoys me to no end in other places too because half of them, or more than half, seem to literally be standing around doing nothing and the other half do…

I've actively avoided the U.S. even though I still want to go, because of those same issues. I even was a few meters from the U.S. (Niagara Falls) and avoided going because of all the visa complications and expenses plus the security measures (if it had been a given I'd be accepted I would have gone, but they don't like young unattached people saying they want to do "tourism", they expect we'll want to stay).

The Canadian side of the Falls is by far the better, anyway.

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#116

Post by netcan » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:13 PM UTC

J3L2404 wrote: post #107

Even if this story is accurate, which is unlikely, the righteous indignation of the comments here is even more pathetic. The U.S is like China and Russia, please. That is an insult to people actually living in oppression. Maybe do something productive instead.

In an interview with Anthony Bourdain (Vice Guide to Travel) he mentioned that even in North Korea he is less worried about being picked up by authorities (than criminals). It usually just ends in deportation.

It's very easy to blow off incidents like this with a 'not much harm done' attitude. The truth is that a paranoia and senselessness from authority is what makes a regime like Russia or China and the US is quickly going in that direction.

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#117

Post by swombat » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:17 PM UTC

drats wrote: post #26

Has anyone done a study of how much this is damaging the tourism industry in the USA? I have 1001 places I want to go, but all those in the USA shifted down a lot lower on the list after they started a lot of the airport security/TSA measures. Airport security stuff annoys me to no end in other places too because half of them, or more than half, seem to literally be standing around doing nothing and the other half do…

I've actively avoided the US because of its immigration policy .

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#118

Post by swombat » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:20 PM UTC

netcan wrote: post #112

perfunctory wrote: post #12

Comments on the article's page are even scarier than the article itself.

some gems: serves them right for putting up stupid comments like that on a public site where the world can see At least the yanks have got it right. If that was here, it would be completly different... they would be welcome even more with a brass band waiting for them at arrivals with hand outs, benefits and housing all sorted for them Perhaps if they spoke or 'tweeted' to each other in proper English................…

Well, it is the Sun we're talking about here. It does have a very specific target audience.

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#119

Post by burgerbrain » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:20 PM UTC

J3L2404 wrote: post #107

Even if this story is accurate, which is unlikely, the righteous indignation of the comments here is even more pathetic. The U.S is like China and Russia, please. That is an insult to people actually living in oppression. Maybe do something productive instead.

"Stop complaining citizen. It's worse elsewhere."

Re: US bars friends over Twitter joke

#120

Post by buro9 » Mon, Jan 30, 2012, 2:22 PM UTC

Those guys are screwed now.

Refusal of access means that they'll never get in on the visa waiver program and any employment in the future that might be with a multi-national will be limited by their ability to travel. They just won't be able to enter the USA without going through an arduously long process every time.

I've been telling my friends for the longest time to moderate everything that they say on the internet, in private and in public. Little of it will be used in your favour, and all of it can and will be used against you.

It's not far from the way you would have to think if you were living under the Stasi. You'd have to think about how your public actions could be perceived, and you'd have to consider whether you trust any present parties for private actions.

The biggest difference between people today and people under the Stasi is the awareness of it. Those under the Stasi knew to change their actions.

The only thing to which these two are guilty of, is a failure to understand that this is not the world they thought it was.