Thread by @ErrataRob

This is a crappy ad hominem attack. Sure, AG Barr is making the same bad arguments, but the proper reply is the same good counter-arguments, not ad hominem responses like this.

https://twitter.com/JoeBeOne/status/1153731830820069376

For example, here's this one, where Barr claims the problem of going dark is not abstract but real in terms of mounting victims.

But as far as I can tell from looking at the statistics, there isn't a mounting crime wave. Crime it down.

What he means is that there is a mounting number of phones in their possession recovered from criminals that they can't decrypt. This doesn't mean crimes are increasing or successful prosecutions are decreasing -- they aren't.

This demonstrates that the problem isn't crime but power. The population isn't being increasingly victimized. Instead, the problem is that our police overlords have less power and they HATE that.

If the problem was a crime wave due to encryption, I'd agree that we'd need a serious debate about the problem. But since there is no crime wave, the debate is non-serious.

Crime rates are dropping as law enforcement goes dark. Barr's claim that they are raising is even less true that his claim the Meuller report totally exonerates his boss.

So AG Barr is a fucktard. But this isn't an ad hominem attack, because I'm NOT saying he's wrong because he's a fucktard.

Instead, I'm saying he's wrong because he claims "mounting victims" despite clear statistics showing such victims decreasing.