7 ms·
Is "your thick skulls" and "stop saying stupid shit" unreasonable incivility when you're responding to someone who's telling you to shut up because he doesn't l
by hga 11y ago
Is "your thick skulls" and "stop saying stupid shit" unreasonable incivility when you're responding to someone who's telling you to shut up because he doesn't like what you're saying?
A quick review of my comments, including on this topic, shows it takes rather a lot to push me that far.
That Hacker News hosts "classic flamewar topics" is an issue in your court. E.g. in this domain, you could declare as non-germane any discussion of gun control per se, and limit discussions like this to e.g. the intersection of the 1st and 2nd Amendment issues these printed guns are prompting.
(Although I suppose it's hard to say "this makes gun control obsolete" comments are off-topic, but I have no dog in that hunt, it's not an interesting topic except in how it causes the authorities to over-react.)
The sign of a classic flamewar topic is that it ends in a recognizable meltdown end state, of which the-culture-war-will-lead-to-a-new-U.S.-civil-war is surely one.
Then it's a good thing I didn't say that, only pointed out that this topic in the US context is a part of our culture war. And it clearly is, e.g. given the severe political costs to his party, it's hard to see why Obama is still prosecuting it other than as part of a culture war.
(Seriously, I've just read a couple of stark statistics about the RKBA in the Age of Obama: 100 million guns have been sold (not all are new ones, but we bought enough to equip the active US Marine Corps on 2015 Black Friday (!)), and US firearms manufacturing is up 140% in units. I know people have been saying he's the best firearms salesman ever, but this was way beyond my gut feeling.)
- dang 11y ago> Is "your thick skulls", "stop saying stupid shit" unreasonable incivility Yes, because the rule holds regardless of provocation. It has to, because everyone always feels like they are merely responding to provocation.
- hga 11y agoOK, I'll restrain my tone in the future. But more polite ways to respond to someone telling you to shut up would be welcome. Well, I suppose a simple "No." suffices.
- krapp 11y agoIf you're referring to me specifically, I wasn't telling you to shut up, just trying to get you to reconsider your tone. You've made a number of civil and intelligent arguments for your point of view here, but when you resort to rhetoric about how violent you're willing to be it only serves to derail the topic at hand. And "no" would be a vast improvement over "no" followed by a violent threat, even an implied one.
- hga 11y agoYour telling me to shut up about my "rhetoric about how violent [I'm] willing to be" is not telling me to shut up? "No." ^_^ Especially when you should be thankful it's been reduced to 8 words.
- krapp 11y ago>Especially when you should be thankful it's been reduced to 8 words. Oh believe me, I am. It's a step in the right direction, at least.
- DanBC 11y ago> A quick review of my comments, including on this topic, shows it takes rather a lot to push me that far. That's untrue. You very quickly resort to threats of violence in any gun thread.
- hga 11y agoYou very quickly resort to threats of violence in any gun thread. What you claim is not what dang called me out on, rather incivility in choice of the language to express my thoughts.
- dragonwriter 11y ago> Is "your thick skulls" and "stop saying stupid shit" unreasonable incivility Yes, always and unconditionally on HN it is unacceptable incivility. If someone is doing something which is itself uncivil which provokes you to want to respond this way, and you want to productively participate in the HN community, you should either use the flag/downvote buttons, or -- if you don't have them because the provocative post is a direct response to one of yours -- leave it to others to do so.