Slashdot Mirror
Taliban Seizes and Burns PCs, Cell Phones To Stop Obscenity
retroworks writes "As translated from Central Asia Online, Cellular News reports that militants from South Waziristan set ablaze about 300 cellular phones and a number of computers in Wana because the devices were allegedly used to spread obscene materials. Prior to taking the action, they gave everyone fair warning with 'leaflets.' 300 cell phones down, 5 or 6 billion to go.
So given that there were 2 sides fighting, which side do you suggest America should have supported ?
a) the Soviets, a communist government that ran extermination camps that killed about 10 times more people than the holocaust, was starting wars left and right, built up a force of thousands of nukes that were deployed in the configuration they thought would kill the maximum number of Americans, and threathened the lives and freedom of more than a billion human beings, in both Europe and Asia and America.
b) a lunatic, local band of mohammedan theocrats (at that point in time muslim was not the term used), with grand dreams, for running religious genocides amongst other things. And at this point in time unable to resist (a), but with a little help they can open a front against (a) which will in the end weaken both them and (a)
Is this a tactical decision that doesn't stand up to moral perfection ? Of course. It sacrificed the lives of a few tens of thousands to massively improve the safety of hundreds of millions for decades.
How about we apply a moral standard to this ? Actions like war and even killing are never justified, but when you're confronted with lots of bad choices, all of which are unjustified, you take the least bad one you can find. Even if it is starting a war. The people making this decision certainly thought so.
Or how about the atheist standard ? Clearly it was critical to the success of America to stop the Soviets. Supporting this moronic genocidal faith was cheaper than fighting the Soviets directly, so it was justified. The numbers are very clear : supporting the paedophilic theocrats pays off better than any other option. Therefore : justified.
You are attempting to use very general and naive "moral rules", or maybe even legal rules, in situations where they do not apply.
You've got to understand that most people here have not accomplished anything in their life. They believe they're smart ... but "somehow" this has not translated in a decent, long-term, stable job. They live at home, or alone in a tiny apartment, and have zero prospects to change that.
You know how you recognize the 3 smartest people in any IT organization ? They're the guys at a slightly higher lever, who got married at 25, and they just happen to have their job for 10 years or more. They're the driving force behind every project. They solve every problem, they decide how to do it, they get things done. They probably were politically on the left side of the communist party until they really tried to help some of these "smart geeks", and got their effort thrown into their face because what they were suggesting actually involved doing something. Some really nice people let this happen 4-5 times before switching allegiance, and have found the solution : just let them fight it out amongst themselves and the smart guys will come and present their latest brilliant progress, trying to hide it from their "fellow geeks". Those cops we're talking about are much more like those smartest guys, they have a stable job, a wage that beats the large majority of these "smart" slashdotters by a lot, and have done more for society before they turn 30 than 90% of the guys here will ever do.
People insult others to mask their own shortcomings. The shortcomings in question here are living in your parent's basement, jacking off hourly, never accomplishing anything, swapping jobs without advancing every year, and have recently neglected to celebrate their 35th birthday, but are convinced they are teenagers or children. And they tell themselves that what they're doing is worthwhile, that it won't result end in suicide or total abandonment. The only human contact for these guys is either during binge-drinking or at work. And while they're not nearly as smart as they think they are, they're smart enough to realize what the future holds for them.
Geeks used to be people who really made intellectual contributions. These days "geeks" I meet in companies are more worried about their waist line and running endurance than about their latest ill-fated idea for a recursive algorithm to calculate prime numbers. Geeks used to be people who worked for a company and were brilliant during daytime, and did even more at home, constantly thinking about how things worked, how to improve things. "Geeks" these days are the guys who in high school beat up the guy with the big glasses for getting grades that are too high.
I'm going for the simple explanation : what hasn't changed is what the percentage of real smart people is, and smart people have not suddenly started worrying about their waistline or physical prowess or sports. Really smart outliers have remained at the very best 0.5% of the population. But somehow everybody's a geek these days. I'll tell you what has changed : the definition of "geek".
Expect a LOT of insults.