Comment by iwontberude

2 years ago

Good thing there is no penalties for lying under oath anymore. That pesky rule of law was so long in the tooth.

There are instead life destroying penalties being handed out to whistleblowers. What a world we live in.

  • The good thing is we live in a democracy - if we don't like it, we can fix it at the voting booth.

    • Gerrymandering, campaign finance, first past the post, and the electoral college have all ensured that my votes account for precisely fuck-all.

    • From a European perspective, I am most cautious in calling a two party system a proper democracy.

      It’s easy to game the system when there are only two sides to pay…

Penalties for whom? Clapper was bound by conflicting laws requiring both honesty and secrecy. This problem goes all the way to the root of government and legal system.

  • There are ways to respond to a question without violating secrecy and being dishonest. It’s like pleading the fifth, there are situations where it is acceptable to not tell the whole truth because it is counter to a law or personal right. In those instances the person needs to explicitly proclaim the basis in which they are obscuring the answer. Giving untruthful, absolute answers about the non-existence of something is inconsistent with the above.