Generally, some of the ideas here are still potentially useful, they just don’t get you any guarantees.
When I say “There’s nothing you can do about journalists screwing you over” I mean it like “There’s nothing you can do about the police screwing you over”. In 90% of cases, you probably won’t be screwed over, but the distribution of power makes it easy for them to make things difficult for you if they hate you enough. Another example is “Unprotected WIFI isn’t secure”, you can use McDonalds internet for your online banking for years without being hacked, so in practice you’re only a little insecure, but the statement “It’s insecure” just means “Whether or not you’re safe no longer depends on yourself, but on other peoples intentions”.
From this perspective, I’m warning against something which may not even happen. But it’s merely because a bad actor could exploit these attack vectors. I’m also speaking very generally, in a larger scope than just Lesswrong users talking to journalists. This probably adds to the feeling of our conversations being disconnected.
But I will have to disagree about nobody being naive. When two entities interact, and one of the entities is barely making an effort in pleasing the other party, it’s because of a difference in power. A small company may go out of its way to help you if you call its customer support line, whereas even getting in touch with a website like Facebook (unless its through the police) is genuinely hard.
The content says “Journalists exist to help us understand the world. But if you are a journalist, you have to be good enough to deserve the name” Which seems to mean “If you’re going to trade, you need to provide something of value yourself, like offering a service”. I think this is true for journalists as individuals, but not for companies which employ journalists. If these people won’t treat you with respect, it’s because they don’t have to, and arguing with them is entirely pointless, even if you’re right. Nothing but power will guarantee a difference, and if a journalist treats you kindly it’s probably because they have integrity (which is one of the forces capable of resisting Moloch).
Repeating myself a bit here, but hopefully made my position clearer in the process.
Generally, some of the ideas here are still potentially useful, they just don’t get you any guarantees.
When I say “There’s nothing you can do about journalists screwing you over” I mean it like “There’s nothing you can do about the police screwing you over”. In 90% of cases, you probably won’t be screwed over, but the distribution of power makes it easy for them to make things difficult for you if they hate you enough. Another example is “Unprotected WIFI isn’t secure”, you can use McDonalds internet for your online banking for years without being hacked, so in practice you’re only a little insecure, but the statement “It’s insecure” just means “Whether or not you’re safe no longer depends on yourself, but on other peoples intentions”.
From this perspective, I’m warning against something which may not even happen. But it’s merely because a bad actor could exploit these attack vectors. I’m also speaking very generally, in a larger scope than just Lesswrong users talking to journalists. This probably adds to the feeling of our conversations being disconnected.
But I will have to disagree about nobody being naive. When two entities interact, and one of the entities is barely making an effort in pleasing the other party, it’s because of a difference in power. A small company may go out of its way to help you if you call its customer support line, whereas even getting in touch with a website like Facebook (unless its through the police) is genuinely hard.
The content says “Journalists exist to help us understand the world. But if you are a journalist, you have to be good enough to deserve the name” Which seems to mean “If you’re going to trade, you need to provide something of value yourself, like offering a service”. I think this is true for journalists as individuals, but not for companies which employ journalists. If these people won’t treat you with respect, it’s because they don’t have to, and arguing with them is entirely pointless, even if you’re right. Nothing but power will guarantee a difference, and if a journalist treats you kindly it’s probably because they have integrity (which is one of the forces capable of resisting Moloch).
Repeating myself a bit here, but hopefully made my position clearer in the process.