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Ask HN: Is your favourite software being intentionally comprimised?

2 points by biscotti ↗ HN
With most software projects openly advocating and endorsing the destruction and lawlessness that the BLM movement has brought to our societies I can't help but worry that if I am to be responsible I should now regard them as compromised if our societies decend further into chaos, especially so since many have demanded their core contributors share such politics.

I was always taught that our politics should be kept seperate from our professional lives. HN, am I wrong to be worried?

13 comments

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thanksforfish
Please attend a peaceful protest and observe what's happening and what people are saying. There's probably one near where you live. I believe your question has a faulty premise.
biscotti
The latest peaceful protest as described by the bbc here: https://twitter.com/BBCNews/status/1269574979680702470 left 27 police officers injured, one with a collapsed lung and shattered ribs after a rock was thrown at her horse.

Would you care to explain why my question has a faulty premise? I am genuinely concerned about this.

petee
Until police finally start policing themselves, some 'bad apples' are bound to express their oppression through rage. How many of your friends and family would have to be killed for you to react in a similar fashion?

BLM doesn't advocate violence, and in many videos are helping stop looting. They simply want cops to stop killing black people, why is that so hard to understand

petee
And anyway the only "compromise" that you'd likely to see is unwillingness to compromise encryption, or help police violate privacy. Doesn't sound bad to me
biscotti
The comprimise I fear is a seemingly innocent bug that leads to the unauthorized access of a database.
petee
I'm not sure why you assume BLM would be responsible for such a thing, versus a white nationalist, or a foreign government, or a random Joe. Also not sure if you're suggesting 'seemingly innocent' to mean actually innocent or intentional
biscotti
As mentioned I would hope that politics would be kept seperate from the software, which would mean you might not know your co-contributors affiliations and so reduce the chance for any coordinated effort that might affect its integrity.

& yes an innocent looking bug, that is intentional.

biscotti
There seem to be too many 'bad apples' though. I had family killed during the troubles in Belfast, and though I was too young to take action I am sure it would not lead me to deface statues and burn flags on the cenotaph.

Britain has arguably been amongst the best places to be an aspiring black person. Weaponising race is directly acting against them.

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petee
I was using the phrase ironically since that's usually used to describe the cops. I believe many blacks disagree with you though, but I can't state that as a white person, you'll just have to pay attention to the thousands people protesting, because that's what they're trying to tell you.

I'm sorry to hear about your family. We all want the killing to stop

biscotti
I have many friends that are black that do not support this now, why would they support the weaponisation of their race?

Do you not think it's fishy that the Open Society donated £33m to this movement?

petee
I guess I just don't agree with your characterization of weaponization

So in that context, no I don't think it's fishy

biscotti
Perhaps it's because my father probably had to take redundancy from his factory job when the UK ultimately lost most of its automotive sector in the wake of Black Wednesday, so I know how this organisaions leadership has no qualms, better yet, takes delight in destabilizing nations.

As for myself I can not complain. I have not quite been able to erase my black country accent (ranked least desirable & lowest class in the UK) but I managed to get a hardship fund so I could go to university, I am the first generation in my family to do so and since then I've been able to score contracts so tbh it's happy days. My parents (I think) are proud though I know they worry sometimes I might accidentally encounter some Marijuana (now it is Elon endorsed, I don't feel quite as guilty :)

I have been taught to consider the police as much of my people as black folk. The UK does not have a problem in relations between the races, I have worked with many black people at a professional level in large and small organisations, some of their children call me uncle. The problem if I am honest is more knife and gang crime in London, driven by a gangster culture that rap and hiphop producers (who many of which were not black) thought was wise to use as a message. This also indirectly affects me through tourism, as people dont want to vacation in London or other large cities, that are no longer what is on the postcard.

My point is this movemnent is making me worry that they are instead being used as an asset to enact change, but in the worst possible way you could concieve to do so, something that the left has proven they are willing to do before, and something that I worry could be a cause great enough for them to act on, to comprimise my software, and my clients.

(edit: grammar)