logoalt Hacker News

advaelyesterday at 10:44 AM1 replyview on HN

In many moral frameworks, inconsistency isn't the only wrong someone can commit. The argument constructed in this article is essentially utilitarian, making the claim that the mechanisms of surveillance and privacy make this behavior harmful to others, regardless of their intentions or internal sense of morality. In fact, the author doesn't mention hating these people at all, although I suppose that's not a completely unreasonable thing to infer. From the perspective of this argument, this only lacks the harm the "deviancy signal" would itself do to the individual, though in the oppressive regime proposed they would perhaps take greater risk by openly deviating


Replies

Wowfunhappyyesterday at 10:49 AM

> In fact, the author doesn't mention hating these people at all

The article opens with:

>> There's a special kind of contempt I reserve for the person who says, "I have nothing to hide."

Which isn't literally saying "I hate them" but I'm not sure how else to interpret "a special kind of contempt." Regardless, I've edited my original post.

show 2 replies