Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

nytimes.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

81–90 of 215 posts

Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

#81

Post by GhotiFish »

rglover wrote: post #56

Something that's always confused me about the world and people as a whole. Why are so many people hell bent on implementing some "moral standard" that everyone needs to follow? Honestly? There's this bizarre projection of the individual and his/her motivations onto every living being that fails to make any logical sense. Is there any psychological premise for why we feel the need to dictate the behavior of others suc…

Is this an inditement of Dr. King, the FBI, Or the EFF?

Are you inditing all three of them?

I'm pretty sure all three parties have put their words to action, and are fully willing to follow their moral beliefs in addition to foisting those beliefs on others.

Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

#83

Post by thisjepisje »

wuliwong wrote: post #38
thisjepisje wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it funny how people feel offended as soon as you leave out the words "some" or "most".

Why do you think that is funny?

It's like they want to be offended or something, don't you think? Isn't it pretty obvious that when someone says "Americans are silly people" they don't mean that literally every single American person is silly?

Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

#84

Post by dllthomas »

AnimalMuppet wrote: post #57
jafaku wrote: post #47

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even if you had a perfect corruption-proof government design... What can you do about it? You are not in charge, and have no way to influence the people in charge.

Even if you had a perfect corruption-proof government implementation , you still have humans composing that government, and therefore it won't be corruption-proof for long.

I don't think a design could be said to be "corruption-proof" without taking into account the elements that compose it. That may or may not be most of a proof of the non-existence of "corruption-proof" government.

Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

#85

Post by mkempe »

[deleted] wrote: post #62

[deleted]

Do you realize that it was Democrats, the "left" in US politics, who were opposed to MLK's message of equality and freedom for all? that the battle for Civil Rights was won thanks to Republicans, against Democrats? that it was Democrats who were the anti-abolitionist party?

Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

#86

Post by bduerst »

JoeAltmaier wrote: post #22
Mikeb85 wrote: post #19

It continually amazes me that Americans can perpetuate the myth that their government is a democratic, moral force in the world given everything they have done, and are still doing...

That's actually the best hope for America, the expectation that we should do good, do the best we can.

Maybe for some cases, but good is relative, subjective term. Good for whom?

Did the FBI agents drafting this think they were doing their best to do good?

Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

#88

Post by dllthomas »

Demiurge wrote: post #59
jafaku wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Others do it therefore it's ok."

"Reality is not a moral construct."

I suppose the Demiurge should be expected to have much to say on the nature of reality as a construct. If the Gnostics have it right, I don't know if we could trust it to tell the truth though.

Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

#89

Post by vezzy-fnord »

jobu wrote: post #48
Mikeb85 wrote: post #19

It continually amazes me that Americans can perpetuate the myth that their government is a democratic, moral force in the world given everything they have done, and are still doing...

"Many forms of government have been tried and will be tried in this world of sin and woe. No one pretends that democracy is perfect or all wise. Indeed, it has been said that democracy is the worst form of government, except for all the others that have been tried from time to time." - Winston Churchill

That's a very cute quote, but "democracy" in of itself is vague. Direct democracy is certainly not better than other forms of government that have been tried. Indeed, direct democracies are nearly non-existent. Most countries are constitutional republics, or more euphemistically "representative democracies".

That said, the United States' implementation of a constitutional republic is still worse than other forms that have been tried. It has a majoritarian voting system, an electoral college and is heavily vulnerable to gerrymandering and divide/conquer.

Furthermore, the United States usually gets more stern criticism precisely because of the idiotic lie of American exceptionalism. The United States is the only country I know of that obsesses over how supposedly "free" it is with an almost religious fervor. All of this propaganda only makes the inevitable examples of U.S. government corruption even more bitter than they would have been if only Americans had a far more realistic outlook about themselves: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unethical_human_experimentatio...

Re: What an Uncensored Letter to M.L.K. Reveals

#90

Post by [deleted] »

rooster8 wrote: post #29
Mikeb85 wrote: post #19

It continually amazes me that Americans can perpetuate the myth that their government is a democratic, moral force in the world given everything they have done, and are still doing...

Any system as large and complicated as this one will have failures. Our job is to learn from the past and try to prevent it from happening again in the future.

[deleted]
Post reply on HN