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Just because it's a tech forum, doesn't mean it's immune from social issues. This fetishization of "objectivity" (like there's such a thing) is one of the reaso
by cooper12 9y ago
Just because it's a tech forum, doesn't mean it's immune from social issues. This fetishization of "objectivity" (like there's such a thing) is one of the reasons tech has such a problem with it. I wish we could all be emotionless robots who only process facts and figures, but reality doesn't work that way and we all have our implicit or explicit biases and the world is not a just place. Also by your logic things like Net Neutrality or UBI would have no place on HN since they're related to politics and society, yet here they are. What you really mean is "please don't post things that are inconvenient to me and make me uncomfortable". (you're also being willfully ignorant of the context of this post if you think gender had nothing to do with it) Don't mind me, please do go back to jerking off over the latest Go rewrite or Javascript framework.
As for your retort, the best forum to address issues is right where they happen. I notice casual dismissal of sexism being an issue here all the time. Your suggestion is like saying that the black rights movement should have only held speeches at the NAACP instead of coordinating sit-ins and marches. You bring your message to the people who need it, whether they like it or not. Of course they'll try to dismiss it saying they don't like your tone or approach, but that's been a constant tactic used against progress for centuries, nothing new.
- pbhjpbhj 9y ago>As for your retort, the best forum to address issues is right where they happen. // I find it more like suggesting all cookery books have a section on the authors opinions of racial segregation. Sure, racism appears in kitchens everywhere, but IMO you don't need to address it in recipe books. Indeed I'd rather recipe books keep to recipes, not because I want to ignore racism but because they're not a useful forum for it. Net neutrality and UBI, the latter probably doesn't belong here but they are both things that hackers are involved in hacking, whilst speculating about whether a particular individual is or isn't acting out of sexism seems very far from the primary aims of this forum. Why not keep this a place where we, of whatever sex or none, can "jerk off to the latest Go rewrite", why do you need to bring sexual politics here? If people are talking about tech, the tech has no sexual connotations, the people are removed by virtue of the forum from their obvious sexual characteristics, ... why not allow a place to be non-sexual, tech (and startup), focused? If the woman who headed the Go rewrite is a bisexual feminist who married her hamster then you can no doubt comment about that on tabloid news fora; why do you have to bring it here too? Presumably - given your vaguely couched suggestions of people exhibiting racism and sexism - unless my cornflake packet talks about these issues you find it to be racist & sexist?