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I just want to leave but at the same time, it's all so dishonest. People like you are doing so little to stop it. The most influential country in the world is b

I just want to leave but at the same time, it's all so dishonest. People like you are doing so little to stop it. The most influential country in the world is being fucked up because people like you fucked up and won't give up your power to those who could do better. This thread is an example of what you are causing. But still it doesn't matter to you because you want a paycheck.

dang 10y ago
The difficulty here is the impossibility of perceiving others accurately through the tiny pinhole of a channel that we have online. Because we have so little information about each other—a stick drawing, if that—we fill in the rest with our imagination. To do this, we draw on our own experiences and feelings, not real data about the other person. What other information would we use? By definition, there isn't any. The result is that we create a picture of a monster (e.g. in this case, a dishonest person fucking up the country) that has an uncanny ability to push our buttons and drive us crazy. I puzzled over my own version of this for a long time before realizing that the only being with such perfect knowledge of how to push my buttons was me. So we're fighting demons of our own creation. That explains why we can never get away from them or ever win: they're internal creatures who have access to all our secret codes—probably better access than we do. Knowing about this dynamic is key to not being driven crazy by it. In my case it was an occupational health hazard. I had to figure it out because the alternative was literally to have my buttons pushed and be driven crazy all day, every day. There's more than enough material on HN to fuel that, and it isn't a good way to live. Once you realize that this process is going on inside your system and isn't a snapshot of reality, you can be more open to information that doesn't fit the picture. For example, that the person you're talking to admires your desire for honesty and has as little power to fuck up the country (or unfuck it up) as you do.
- abtinf 10y ago
  This is an extraordinarily insightful comment about online discussions. Might I suggest adding a summary of it to the HN guidelines, or perhaps even create a "philosophy of HN" page that contains these sorts of principles that ought to guide HN discussion. I'm seeing this after the political-detox-week thread, and I think it provides crucial context: political discussion online creates a "picture of a monster" that one imagines can inflict real harm to the self and to loved ones.
  - dang 10y ago
    Thank you for so kind a reply; I'm glad I came back here and saw your comment and crusso's. Your last sentence is a contribution of its own, and I agree with you—it's primal threat circuitry that's being activated. That's why arguments on the internet are so tiring! I don't have much incentive to group my comments together, but I do use HN as a place to post mini-essays from time to time—to get stuff that's been on my mind off my chest. The problem is that you'd have to wade through reams of "personal attacks are are not allowed on Hacker News" and "we've detached this subthread and marked it off topic" to find them.
- crusso 10y ago
  Might I offer a Neo-like "Woah", in response to that insight? I'll have to think about that.

dang 10y ago

The difficulty here is the impossibility of perceiving others accurately through the tiny pinhole of a channel that we have online. Because we have so little information about each other—a stick drawing, if that—we fill in the rest with our imagination. To do this, we draw on our own experiences and feelings, not real data about the other person. What other information would we use? By definition, there isn't any. The result is that we create a picture of a monster (e.g. in this case, a dishonest person fucking up the country) that has an uncanny ability to push our buttons and drive us crazy. I puzzled over my own version of this for a long time before realizing that the only being with such perfect knowledge of how to push my buttons was me. So we're fighting demons of our own creation. That explains why we can never get away from them or ever win: they're internal creatures who have access to all our secret codes—probably better access than we do. Knowing about this dynamic is key to not being driven crazy by it. In my case it was an occupational health hazard. I had to figure it out because the alternative was literally to have my buttons pushed and be driven crazy all day, every day. There's more than enough material on HN to fuel that, and it isn't a good way to live. Once you realize that this process is going on inside your system and isn't a snapshot of reality, you can be more open to information that doesn't fit the picture. For example, that the person you're talking to admires your desire for honesty and has as little power to fuck up the country (or unfuck it up) as you do.

abtinf 10y ago
This is an extraordinarily insightful comment about online discussions. Might I suggest adding a summary of it to the HN guidelines, or perhaps even create a "philosophy of HN" page that contains these sorts of principles that ought to guide HN discussion. I'm seeing this after the political-detox-week thread, and I think it provides crucial context: political discussion online creates a "picture of a monster" that one imagines can inflict real harm to the self and to loved ones.
- dang 10y ago
  Thank you for so kind a reply; I'm glad I came back here and saw your comment and crusso's. Your last sentence is a contribution of its own, and I agree with you—it's primal threat circuitry that's being activated. That's why arguments on the internet are so tiring! I don't have much incentive to group my comments together, but I do use HN as a place to post mini-essays from time to time—to get stuff that's been on my mind off my chest. The problem is that you'd have to wade through reams of "personal attacks are are not allowed on Hacker News" and "we've detached this subthread and marked it off topic" to find them.
crusso 10y ago
Might I offer a Neo-like "Woah", in response to that insight? I'll have to think about that.