Anti-Tech Security Hysteria

When the security hysterics among us get their feathers in a bunch, the first thing they seek to do to assuage their irrational fears is to demands that the rest of us comply with their insane proposals, no matter how inimical they are to liberty, rights or even security itself.  Tech Dirt takes down a prime example of anti-tech hysteria at the Washington Post:

Every time I think I've read the least well-thought out luddite argument, someone comes along to top it, and today we have columnist Robert Samuelson in the Washington post with what might be the silliest, most lacking-in-thought argument for why we should get rid of the internet. The short version: yes, the internet has provided us with some good stuff, but because there's a yet unproven risk that it might also lead to some cyberattacks that might lead to as yet undetermined problems, we should scrap the whole thing. Oddly, the WaPo had put different titles on the piece online and in the print newspaper. Online, it's entitled: "Beware the Internet and the danger of cyberattacks." In the physical paper, they apparently went with the much more ridiculous: "Is the Internet Worth It?" with the clear implication being a fulfillment of Betteride's Law that the answer is "no, the internet is not worth it."