[free-sklyarov] Disturbing analogies

[Seth Johnson]

huaiyu_zhu at yahoo.com wrote:
> 
> Hearing this, that guy started telling a story about two "Russian hackers"
> stealing company secrets and asking for ransom.  And they did this to US
> company from Russia.  And the FBI set up a fake company and invited them to
> come here to tell about their "techniques", and nailed them.  Et cetra.
> 
> We all know that is a completely unrelated story (if there was such a
> story at all).

It's a true story.  The FBI invited some guy to the US, asked him to
show his stuff on oh, say, *this* computer over here.  They had rigged
the computer up to record his keystrokes, and they used that to get
evidence on the basis of which they prosecuted him.  Don't ask me who or
where or what all, but it was relatively recently, like the last couple
of months or so.

> So my point is, if we do not come up with short accurate analogies of our
> own that can capture listener's imagination, we might lose in a "war of
> attention span".  And without attention from ordinary people, good arguments
> have very limited use (unless we'd like to see this go through the courts,
> of course).
> 
> When the other side is trying hard to muddy the water, what is the most
> effective way to make it clear again?

You have to use incisive, delineating line.  You have to *violate* the
assumptions of the other side, and of those who are listening.

Seth Johnson