Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access • Hacker News Board

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#231

Post by ztjio » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 8:41 PM UTC

DetroitThrow wrote: post #178

miracle2k wrote: post #88

People should resist the temptation to defend this. 1. Blocking Iranian IPs, as opposed to accounts, is almost certainly over-compliance. Note that the vast majority of websites do not do this. Even big ones, such as Gmail, do not do this. 2. It does not speak well of the United States justice system if someone could be prosecuted for failure to block Iranian IPs. If this were required, the law should be clear. Other…

>Blocking Iranian IPs, as opposed to accounts, is almost certainly over-compliance. Note that the vast majority of websites do not do this. Even big ones, such as Gmail, do not do this. I wish dang would ban users for blatant misinformation such as this. The number of people who end up believing these lies as truth probably outweighs the benefit of any civil discussion it could lead to: in the US, it's now obvious th…

I sympathize with your position and even agree in the context of other types of sites, but, what really needs to happen here is YC users need to learn that nothing in these comment threads is authoritative. This is the land of Dunning-Kruger and nobody should ever directly believe anything here, no matter how trustworthy it seems.

Always verify.

If effort was put into censoring bad information, that might instill a false sense of trust that could never be met by mods. Instead, effort should be put into making sure everyone knows to be skeptical. That, to me, seems more in line with how this site operates.

If people want to be believed, they should cite authoritative sources.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#232

Post by colinmhayes » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 8:47 PM UTC

jlgaddis wrote: post #189

colinmhayes wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afaik the U.S. no longer sponsors terrorists. I'd love a link if I'm misguided. Further, elimination of zionists is still a stated goal of the Iranian government. I'm not saying Israel is guilt free of course, but afaik they've never threatened nuking anyone. Again, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

> Afaik the U.S. no longer sponsors terrorists. I find that very hard to believe, considering the activities of the CIA -- just the ones we know about -- over the last several decades (or, really, since its beginning). -- Side note: Does selling billions of dollars worth of arms to Saudi Arabia count as sponsoring terrorists? cf. Jamal Khashoggi, et al.

A state killing a political opponent, however unacceptable, isn't terrorism. The point of terrorism is that it effects unsuspecting bystanders. I already said I think we should sanction the saudis though, because they actually are sponsoring terrorism. See the Yemen war and their funding of al queda as well as their infiltration of twitter.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#233

Post by colinmhayes » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 8:48 PM UTC

sudosysgen wrote: post #163

colinmhayes wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Afaik the U.S. no longer sponsors terrorists. I'd love a link if I'm misguided. Further, elimination of zionists is still a stated goal of the Iranian government. I'm not saying Israel is guilt free of course, but afaik they've never threatened nuking anyone. Again, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

The US has sponsored terrorists covertly for decades now. Just because they stopped publically sponsoring terrorists doesn't mean much when most of the last century was spent covertly sponsoring them too.

Ok but if Iran stopped publicly sponsoring terrorists and trying to nuke Israel they wouldn't be sanctioned. The public support is an integral part of why they're sanctioned.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#234

Post by dang » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 8:50 PM UTC

excieve wrote: post #184

What many don't seem to understand about Crimea, is that Crimea is an occupied territory of Ukraine [0] (as understood by UN, as well as most countries except the Russian Federation and several of its affiliated states). As an occupied territory, it doesn't have any legitimate institutions (such as a recognised government, banks, courts, etc.) — only a foreign occupation regime. Same way as Germany's Reichskommissari…

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24886573.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#235

Post by Causality1 » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 8:50 PM UTC

boomboomsubban wrote: post #94

Causality1 wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in complete agreement that most of our "allies" in the region are fairweather friends and as morally bankrupt as anyone else. However, I'm also in favor of blanket sanctions against any nation whose parliament takes up a literal "Marg bar Āmrikā" collective chant.

So because they chanted "Death to America," you are in favor of imposing sanctions that will cause the death of Iranians?

If someone communicates that they want to kill you, I think refusing to do business with them is an incredibly subdued response.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#236

Post by fakedang » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 8:51 PM UTC

reducesuffering wrote: post #227

fakedang wrote: post #223

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which is just a part of playing the Middle Eastern powers game. The current five major powers in the region are Israel, Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE and Iran. Out of them, one is rumored to be a nuclear power, three are delayed nuclear powers, while all but one are state sponsors of terrorism directly, and the last one sponsors them indirectly. Two of them want Israel destroyed, one is openly allied to Israel and one is…

Saudi Arabia is the open ally to Israel and UAE is the secret one?

You got it the other way around - the UAE is the open ally, Saudi Arabia is the secret one.

If you're wondering about the rest, Israel is the secret nuclear power, the UAE recently became a nuclear power (civilian purposes, of course :P), Iran is building up nuclear capability, and if it does, Saudi Arabia will just buy nukes off Pakistan since they funded the latter's nuclear programme.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#237

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 8:51 PM UTC

opnitro wrote: post #173

colinmhayes wrote: post #171

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thank you for the link. I think there's an argument that the syrian rebels were fighting terrorism before they were themselves terrorists, but I agree that the US should not be involved in the conflict, and definitely shouldn't fund paramilitary groups with the potential to become terrorists. The U.S. now admitting it was a mistake is important though, because the point of sanctions is to force a government to change…

Purposely funding terrorism does go unpunished, if you're a US ally. This is my point, that our sanctions against Iran have nothing to do with "morality". They are about power.

[deleted]

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#238

Post by bjg2 » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 8:52 PM UTC

ohmaigad wrote: post #229

Gibbon1 wrote: post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My opinion, Crimea is a geopolitical nuance. Any cunning plan cooked up by a western leader that has to do with Crimea blows up in their face.

It is not a nuance, it is a terrible precedent showing that Russia can just come and take away a sovereign states territory. It is like a bigger tougher person coming into your home and starting to live there and there is nobody who is going to help you.

it's not a precedent, kosovo was a precedent. there can't be two precedents. international law got fucked up back then.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#239

Post by tensor » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 9:22 PM UTC

Siira wrote: post #144

ahelwer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing Iran is guilty of is insufficient deference to US hegemony. Any other charge you levy can have its equal found in our so-called allies in the region, or even the US itself.

As an Iranian, I have to say that while your last sentence might be true (Saudi Arabia sucks after all), I'd still rather live in a world where the opposing superpower would pressure my country to respect human rights and stop funding terrorism, fundamentalism, and misinformation. (See what North Korea's effective foreign immunity has brought its people.) This, of course, is hypocritical on the US part, but hypocrisy…

I wonder when the US will get sanctioned for its support of terrorists, fundamentalism, misinformation, and human rights abuse. It has a long history of these things, and they are getting worse and more blatant at an alarming rate.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#240

Post by ahelwer » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 9:25 PM UTC

colinmhayes wrote: post #233

sudosysgen wrote: post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The US has sponsored terrorists covertly for decades now. Just because they stopped publically sponsoring terrorists doesn't mean much when most of the last century was spent covertly sponsoring them too.

Ok but if Iran stopped publicly sponsoring terrorists and trying to nuke Israel they wouldn't be sanctioned. The public support is an integral part of why they're sanctioned.

This is, basically, naive and your view of the world would likely be greatly expanded by reading Manufacturing Consent or Inventing Reality.