<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>xenophonf</author><text>Classified information is antithetical to Thomas Jefferson&amp;#x27;s ideal of a well informed citizenry to whom government is ultimately responsible and accountable.  He affirmed this idea throughout his political writings, but most notably in Bill 79, &amp;quot;A Bill for the More General Diffusion of Knowledge.&amp;quot;  Its preamble reads as follows:&lt;p&gt;&lt;i&gt;Whereas it appeareth that however certain forms of government are better calculated than others to protect individuals in the free exercise of their natural rights, and are at the same time themselves better guarded against degeneracy, yet experience hath shewn, that even under the best forms, those entrusted with power have, in time, and by slow operations, perverted it into tyranny; and it is believed that the most effectual means of preventing this would be, to illuminate, as far as practicable, the minds of the people at large, and more especially to give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth, that, possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes; And whereas it is generally true that that people will be happiest whose laws are best, and are best administered, and that laws will be wisely formed, and honestly administered, in proportion as those who form and administer them are wise and honest; whence it becomes expedient for promoting the publick happiness that those person, whom nature hath endowed with genius and virtue, should be rendered by liberal education worthy to receive, and able to guard the sacred deposit of the rights and liberties of their fellow citizens, and that they should be called to that charge without regard to wealth, birth or other accidental condition or circumstance; but the indigence of the greater number disabling them from so educating, at their own expence, those of their children whom nature hath fitly formed and disposed to become useful instruments for the public, it is better that such should be sought for and educated at the common expence of all, than that the happiness of all should be confided to the weak or wicked:...&lt;/i&gt;&lt;p&gt;Bill 79 was mostly about public schooling, but it contains the kernel of an argument for more open governance and against ubiquitous secrecy in language like &amp;quot;give them knowledge of those facts, which history exhibiteth, that, possessed thereby of the experience of other ages and countries, they may be enabled to know ambition under all its shapes, and prompt to exert their natural powers to defeat its purposes&amp;quot;.</text><parent_chain><item><author>Rebelgecko</author><text>Do you think that the existence of classified information is antithetical to the 1st amendment? I don&amp;#x27;t see how a nation can have secrets without being able to enforce at least &lt;i&gt;some&lt;/i&gt; limitations on free (and commercial...) speech.</text></item><item><author>cryptica</author><text>&amp;gt; Snowden&amp;#x27;s former work agreements with the CIA and NSA are clear that he (and any other employee) must submit the contents of books or speeches for review.&lt;p&gt;I noticed that there seems to be a trend to use legal technicalities to enforce bizarre rules that completely defy the intent of the constitution.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d be questioning whether it should be legal for any company or agency to force prospective employees to sign away their most basic human rights as part of a work contract.&lt;p&gt;Same thing goes for big corporations like Google which use contractual clauses to take possession of their employees&amp;#x27; personal side projects. That is BS.&lt;p&gt;How would they like it if the government told CEOs and other corporate executives that in order to be an American citizen and live in America, they need to sign away their rights to all the work they did and all the assets they amassed while living in the US? Imagine if every developed country in the world demanded the same.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s what it&amp;#x27;s like in today&amp;#x27;s institution and corporation-dominated world. You can&amp;#x27;t work for a decent wage unless you&amp;#x27;re prepared to give up all your basic rights. It&amp;#x27;s disturbing that nobody is protesting this. It ought to be criminal.&lt;p&gt;If the company can&amp;#x27;t make sure that employees don&amp;#x27;t work on side projects during company time then it&amp;#x27;s because managers are incompetent and such poorly run company doesn&amp;#x27;t deserve any legal protection.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden&apos;s Book Profits</title><url>https://reason.com/2019/12/18/the-feds-get-permission-to-seize-edward-snowdens-book-profits/</url></story>
<instructions>Your goal is to analyze the following comment and estimate how highly it will be upvoted by the Hacker News community.</instructions><comment><author>hos234</author><text>Cheney and crew not only leaked stuff. They misused it to justify a pointless war that has had a high cost - &lt;a href=&quot;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Iraqi_aluminum_tubes&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;https:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Iraqi_aluminum_tubes&lt;/a&gt;&lt;p&gt;But the way the law works is they get to retire in peace.</text><parent_chain><item><author>Rebelgecko</author><text>Do you think that the existence of classified information is antithetical to the 1st amendment? I don&amp;#x27;t see how a nation can have secrets without being able to enforce at least &lt;i&gt;some&lt;/i&gt; limitations on free (and commercial...) speech.</text></item><item><author>cryptica</author><text>&amp;gt; Snowden&amp;#x27;s former work agreements with the CIA and NSA are clear that he (and any other employee) must submit the contents of books or speeches for review.&lt;p&gt;I noticed that there seems to be a trend to use legal technicalities to enforce bizarre rules that completely defy the intent of the constitution.&lt;p&gt;I&amp;#x27;d be questioning whether it should be legal for any company or agency to force prospective employees to sign away their most basic human rights as part of a work contract.&lt;p&gt;Same thing goes for big corporations like Google which use contractual clauses to take possession of their employees&amp;#x27; personal side projects. That is BS.&lt;p&gt;How would they like it if the government told CEOs and other corporate executives that in order to be an American citizen and live in America, they need to sign away their rights to all the work they did and all the assets they amassed while living in the US? Imagine if every developed country in the world demanded the same.&lt;p&gt;That&amp;#x27;s what it&amp;#x27;s like in today&amp;#x27;s institution and corporation-dominated world. You can&amp;#x27;t work for a decent wage unless you&amp;#x27;re prepared to give up all your basic rights. It&amp;#x27;s disturbing that nobody is protesting this. It ought to be criminal.&lt;p&gt;If the company can&amp;#x27;t make sure that employees don&amp;#x27;t work on side projects during company time then it&amp;#x27;s because managers are incompetent and such poorly run company doesn&amp;#x27;t deserve any legal protection.</text></item></parent_chain></comment><story><title>The Feds Get Permission to Seize Edward Snowden&apos;s Book Profits</title><url>https://reason.com/2019/12/18/the-feds-get-permission-to-seize-edward-snowdens-book-profits/</url></story>