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Your comment is eerily reminiscent of this quote from MLK's Letter From Birmingham Jail: "I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's gre
by hsod 10y ago
Your comment is eerily reminiscent of this quote from MLK's Letter From Birmingham Jail:
"I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizen's Council-er or the Ku Klux Klanner, but the white moderate who is more devoted to "order" than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action;" who paternalistically feels he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season."
Shallow understanding from people of goodwill is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection."
- scrollaway 10y agoAnd your comment is truly repulsive. I have been fighting this for a year, far better with plain discussion than anyone I've seen with sticks and this isn't even my country. Your implications are disgusting and the nicest way I can find to tell it to you is to stuff it. What I said in my comment (I'm guessing you were too busy looking for that quote instead of reading mine more carefully) is that focusing on holding people accountable is no good. It will NOT bring you Clinton, Sanders or anyone else back and it will certainly NOT change people's minds. It's fucking enraging that you do not understand that. I swear, some people here are pettier than Trump himself.
- hsod 10y agoWhat you said is that we should seek order over justice. This elevates the oppressor to the same moral ground as the oppressed, and demotes the freedom fight to a petty political squabble with a "right" answer somewhere in the middle. Your comparison of me to Trump is ironically the pettiest thing in this thread.
- scrollaway 10y agoYou have absolutely no idea what you're talking about.
- dang 10y agoPlease don't vie for pettiness in HN comments. It's neither civil nor substantive. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- dang 10y agoThis sort of incivility is not allowed here, as you know, regardless of how wrong someone is. Please stop posting to HN like this.
- scrollaway 10y agoDang, I tried to be as courteous as I could be in my reply. I will not stand by idly when somebody throws these sort of implications at me. How is the comment I was replying to at all civil?
- dang 10y agoI haven't read the thread closely enough to be sure. Perhaps the MLK quote was particularly provocative in context but I didn't see anything outright uncivil about what the commenter said. Even if it was, though, it doesn't mean that you get to break HN's rules. I'm sure you can do much better than "fucking enraging".
- scrollaway 10y agoI get why swearing is not (and shouldn't be) the default tone on HN but is that really the issue here? I didn't insult hsod. Meanwhile, I was equated with somebody tacitly approving of segregation. Because I'm telling someone else that it's more productive to understand why this is happening than look for retribution. Civility is about more than tone. hsod's tone was fine but his comment certainly wasnt; my tone was harsh but I maintain it was appropriate for the kind of accusations I was replying to.
- pvg 10y agomy tone was harsh but I maintain it was appropriate It wasn't, by the site's guidelines and patient explanation by a moderator. These aren't laws of physics, just the norms of the venue. Would you 'maintain' it's appropriate to show up at a stranger's funeral waving a lighter and yelling 'Freebird'? Same thing.