The IRS tax data leak
Sometimes I wonder if I should blog on topics where I feel most of you already know what I think. I’ll just say this. The information was stolen illegally, yet on Twitter so many intellectuals were crowing about the disclosure. (Did some of those same people condemn the theft from Biden Jr.’s laptop? How many of them, in other contexts, will defend strong rights of privacy? I guess that right is for everyone except rich people who create a lot of jobs and output.)
ProPublica acted unethically, and in fact nothing fundamentally new or interesting or surprising was learned from their act as accessory.
The real story is how the numbers were obtained, and here I fear the worst. A single rogue agent can’t just pull up the files of rich people on demand, as I understand the system (if so, Trump’s return would have leaked a long time ago). So this was probably a coordinated effort of some sort, is it crazy to suspect the Russians having some role in it? Who else has the will and ability? (China has the ability, but the “coddled rich people” meme is not one they are looking to push.) What other breach of national security has occurred in the process of unearthing this information? How was it done? Are conspiracy theories becoming more true these days?
