5 ms·

It's a bunch of people with insane degrees (literally a PhD in "romantic comedies", WTF why is this even possible) living in places they can't afford and writin

by burfog 8y ago

It's a bunch of people with insane degrees (literally a PhD in "romantic comedies", WTF why is this even possible) living in places they can't afford and writing nonsense. These people loved telling factory workers and especially coal miners to "learn to code". You could tell there was a certain smug glee, taking perverse pleasure in the fact that aging white males (can't imagine any of the other coal miners) in MAGA hats (all coal miners wear them all day long, right?) would have to get educated and somehow enlightened. Now these writers are annoyed that people on Twitter are saying they should learn to code. Well... that's just funny, and very well deserved. Personally, I'd rather they didn't all learn to code. Steel mills are hiring. Mao said to make steel.

gnhrgkai 8y ago
The last thing in the world those people want is a job.
- Phlarp 8y ago
  What makes you say that? And why do you need to use a burner account to voice this opinion?
jriot 8y ago
In short - this is real Karma.
afarrell 8y ago
How is a PhD in romantic comedies any more ridiculous than a PhD focusing on the works of Ovid, Aristophanes, or Shakespeare?
- danmg 8y ago
  The basis of western thought and canonical English literature versus 'You've Got Mail'. Yes there is a difference.
  - oh_sigh 8y ago
    "You've Got Mail" is based off an extremely influential play from 80 years ago. I'm sure there is real analysis that could be done on it. Parfumerie, by Laszlo, inspired The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old SUmmertime, She Loves Me, and more.
    - danmg 8y ago
      So it was derivative trash anyway.
      - dang 8y ago
        You've unfortunately posted a lot of unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. We ban accounts that keep doing that, so would you please stop? In addition to https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, you might find these links helpful for getting an idea of the spirit of this site: https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html
        danmg 8y ago
        My comments are good and highly informative. Please stop trolling.
  - lukas099 8y ago
    Surely it's good for society to have somebody studying these films.
- ohithereyou 8y ago
  One of these things enriches society and sheds light on the universal experiences in human existence. The other fuels consumerism, depression, and relegates women to either damsels in distress, objects of conquest, or abuse victims.
  - neaden 8y ago
    Are you really going to argue that Greek plays/literature treat women well? I mean, I love the Odyssey but it has a part where they literally hang a bunch of women for having sex with the wrong men and then chop off a male servants genitals.
  - ModernMech 8y ago
    > The other fuels consumerism, depression, and relegates women to either damsels in distress, objects of conquest, or abuse victims. I wonder in what ways, and what are the effects of such depictions. If only there was some group of people interested in researching such a thesis...
- repolfx 8y ago
  Arguably PhDs in those subjects aren't that useful either and they just seem respectable because they've been around a long time. Many things would seem ridiculous if they were brand new but become respectable and accepted through age (see: new religions vs old religions). But in the case being referred to here, it's not just that the subject being studied is ridiculous, it's the reasons she studied it in the first place: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chloe-angyal/2013/10/why-im-getting-a-phd-in-something-that-no-one-cares-about/ https://thoughtcatalog.com/chloe-angyal/2013/10/why-im-getti... Several issues here: 1) She knows nobody cares and studies it anyway. Not a smart move. At least you can argue some people might care about a PhD thesis on the works of Shakespeare. 2) She directly tackles the question you raise and the answer deserves ridicule: "Why study romantic comedies? They’re formulaic and predictable and light and fluffy. Everyone knows how they’re going to end. They don’t mean anything. Why devote years of my life to them when I could be studying The Odyssey" Hmm, good question. Because: "Well, for one thing, I’m interested in stories about women. And all those abovementioned stories, those stories we take so seriously, those 'real' texts, are about dudes." To recap - she admits that she did a PhD in a subject nobody cares about, studying texts that "don't mean anything", for no better reason than because more useful or meaningful texts involve men. In other words - it's gender studies. The stereotype that people with gender studies degrees find it hard to stay employed is being proven true right here.
danmg 8y ago
Let 1000 flowers bloom.
threwawasy1228 8y ago
It is interesting to note that the Buzzfeed Opinions desk in particular was completely removed and every single person involved with it fired.
Phlarp 8y ago
While I think learning to code would be a great option for lots of these folks if they want to make a career change (both the journalists and coal miners). It does not need to be specifically triggered by a layoff. With that said, "people on Twitter are saying" is somewhat disingenuous when there was an active and coordinated effort to target journalists that had been laid off with exactly this phrase "learn to code" by 4chan users. You can even see them coming out of the woodwork in the green posters below. They want to doxx and harass others online but don't have the stones to even voice support to such behavior under their actual tags.
- surge 8y ago
  You say 4chan, but its reddit and other forums, its just other people on Twitter bandwagon-ing. If they can be so callous when others get laid off maybe its good they get a dose of their own medicine given they seem to be speaking from a place of entitlement. Journalists have a bad habit of feeding the trolls as well. If you respond to it, they don't seem to realize this encourages them, or perhaps they do and they want to further elevate how victimized they are by this "targeted harassment".
  - pulisse 8y ago
    > If they can be so callous when others get laid off maybe its good they get a dose of their own medicine given they seem to be speaking from a place of entitlement Care to cite some examples of BuzzFeed employees displaying such callousness?
    - surge 8y ago
      Do you want me to pull up every article? Its not Buzzfeed, its the media/journalists. I believe one of them said coding was a blue collar job now and beneath them, more or less. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoohuBQgbQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoohuBQgbQU
      - Phlarp 8y ago
        Yea, no. This was centrally directed by 4chan and explicitly targeted at the individuals laid off buzzfeed and huffpost. Like any profession or trade there will be individuals more skilled than others, and individuals more honest than others; although not always both at the same time. As it stands your eagerness to paint all journalists with the same brush is likely causing people to (consciously or otherwise) discount your argument outright. Even worse; a certain subset of the population is going to be actively antagonized by this language because it so closely resembles language used by a politician that they have very strong negative animus towards. Would your disdain for an entire profession be as vigorous if the layoffs were occuring en masse at Breitbart or Fox News?
prolepunk 8y ago
I find your opinion condescending. You are devaluing other peoples work who are not coders, and counting money of whether or not they deserve to live places they do. There's a lot of difference between making a steel mill worker with no other prospects to participate in jobs program -- that wasn't simple 'learn how to code' slogan there was federal and several volunteer programs doing that. Personally, I'd rather have you refrained from writing opinion pieces.
deleted 8y ago
[deleted]
AlexandrB 8y ago
> These people loved telling factory workers and especially coal miners to "learn to code". The focus "coal miners" is comical. There are some 69,460 coal mining jobs in the US[1], 15,900 of them "blue-collar". That's less than the number of people who work at Google[2]. I get that this is usually shorthand for blue-collar workers. But at the same time very real energy policy decisions are being made ostensibly to keep this small group of people in their jobs. Investing in better access to retraining is probably a better move. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/20/there-are-fewer-coal-miners-than-you-might-realize/?utm_term=.0571f0f95f33 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/20/t... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/273744/number-of-full-time-google-employees/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/273744/number-of-full-ti...
dang 8y ago
Please don't take HN threads on trollish tangents. With all respect to the forces of 4chan, it's off topic here.

by burfog 8y ago

gnhrgkai 8y ago

The last thing in the world those people want is a job.

Phlarp 8y ago
What makes you say that? And why do you need to use a burner account to voice this opinion?

jriot 8y ago

In short - this is real Karma.

afarrell 8y ago

How is a PhD in romantic comedies any more ridiculous than a PhD focusing on the works of Ovid, Aristophanes, or Shakespeare?

danmg 8y ago
The basis of western thought and canonical English literature versus 'You've Got Mail'. Yes there is a difference.
- oh_sigh 8y ago
  "You've Got Mail" is based off an extremely influential play from 80 years ago. I'm sure there is real analysis that could be done on it. Parfumerie, by Laszlo, inspired The Shop Around the Corner, In the Good Old SUmmertime, She Loves Me, and more.
  - danmg 8y ago
    So it was derivative trash anyway.
    - dang 8y ago
      You've unfortunately posted a lot of unsubstantive comments to Hacker News. We ban accounts that keep doing that, so would you please stop? In addition to https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, you might find these links helpful for getting an idea of the spirit of this site: https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newswelcome.html https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html https://news.ycombinator.com/hackernews.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html http://www.paulgraham.com/hackernews.html http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html http://www.paulgraham.com/trolls.html
      - danmg 8y ago
        My comments are good and highly informative. Please stop trolling.
- lukas099 8y ago
  Surely it's good for society to have somebody studying these films.
ohithereyou 8y ago
One of these things enriches society and sheds light on the universal experiences in human existence. The other fuels consumerism, depression, and relegates women to either damsels in distress, objects of conquest, or abuse victims.
- neaden 8y ago
  Are you really going to argue that Greek plays/literature treat women well? I mean, I love the Odyssey but it has a part where they literally hang a bunch of women for having sex with the wrong men and then chop off a male servants genitals.
- ModernMech 8y ago
  > The other fuels consumerism, depression, and relegates women to either damsels in distress, objects of conquest, or abuse victims. I wonder in what ways, and what are the effects of such depictions. If only there was some group of people interested in researching such a thesis...
repolfx 8y ago
Arguably PhDs in those subjects aren't that useful either and they just seem respectable because they've been around a long time. Many things would seem ridiculous if they were brand new but become respectable and accepted through age (see: new religions vs old religions). But in the case being referred to here, it's not just that the subject being studied is ridiculous, it's the reasons she studied it in the first place: https://thoughtcatalog.com/chloe-angyal/2013/10/why-im-getting-a-phd-in-something-that-no-one-cares-about/ https://thoughtcatalog.com/chloe-angyal/2013/10/why-im-getti... Several issues here: 1) She knows nobody cares and studies it anyway. Not a smart move. At least you can argue some people might care about a PhD thesis on the works of Shakespeare. 2) She directly tackles the question you raise and the answer deserves ridicule: "Why study romantic comedies? They’re formulaic and predictable and light and fluffy. Everyone knows how they’re going to end. They don’t mean anything. Why devote years of my life to them when I could be studying The Odyssey" Hmm, good question. Because: "Well, for one thing, I’m interested in stories about women. And all those abovementioned stories, those stories we take so seriously, those 'real' texts, are about dudes." To recap - she admits that she did a PhD in a subject nobody cares about, studying texts that "don't mean anything", for no better reason than because more useful or meaningful texts involve men. In other words - it's gender studies. The stereotype that people with gender studies degrees find it hard to stay employed is being proven true right here.

danmg 8y ago

Let 1000 flowers bloom.

threwawasy1228 8y ago

It is interesting to note that the Buzzfeed Opinions desk in particular was completely removed and every single person involved with it fired.

Phlarp 8y ago

While I think learning to code would be a great option for lots of these folks if they want to make a career change (both the journalists and coal miners). It does not need to be specifically triggered by a layoff. With that said, "people on Twitter are saying" is somewhat disingenuous when there was an active and coordinated effort to target journalists that had been laid off with exactly this phrase "learn to code" by 4chan users. You can even see them coming out of the woodwork in the green posters below. They want to doxx and harass others online but don't have the stones to even voice support to such behavior under their actual tags.

surge 8y ago
You say 4chan, but its reddit and other forums, its just other people on Twitter bandwagon-ing. If they can be so callous when others get laid off maybe its good they get a dose of their own medicine given they seem to be speaking from a place of entitlement. Journalists have a bad habit of feeding the trolls as well. If you respond to it, they don't seem to realize this encourages them, or perhaps they do and they want to further elevate how victimized they are by this "targeted harassment".
- pulisse 8y ago
  > If they can be so callous when others get laid off maybe its good they get a dose of their own medicine given they seem to be speaking from a place of entitlement Care to cite some examples of BuzzFeed employees displaying such callousness?
  - surge 8y ago
    Do you want me to pull up every article? Its not Buzzfeed, its the media/journalists. I believe one of them said coding was a blue collar job now and beneath them, more or less. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoohuBQgbQU https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aoohuBQgbQU
    - Phlarp 8y ago
      Yea, no. This was centrally directed by 4chan and explicitly targeted at the individuals laid off buzzfeed and huffpost. Like any profession or trade there will be individuals more skilled than others, and individuals more honest than others; although not always both at the same time. As it stands your eagerness to paint all journalists with the same brush is likely causing people to (consciously or otherwise) discount your argument outright. Even worse; a certain subset of the population is going to be actively antagonized by this language because it so closely resembles language used by a politician that they have very strong negative animus towards. Would your disdain for an entire profession be as vigorous if the layoffs were occuring en masse at Breitbart or Fox News?

prolepunk 8y ago

I find your opinion condescending. You are devaluing other peoples work who are not coders, and counting money of whether or not they deserve to live places they do. There's a lot of difference between making a steel mill worker with no other prospects to participate in jobs program -- that wasn't simple 'learn how to code' slogan there was federal and several volunteer programs doing that. Personally, I'd rather have you refrained from writing opinion pieces.

deleted 8y ago

[deleted]

AlexandrB 8y ago

> These people loved telling factory workers and especially coal miners to "learn to code". The focus "coal miners" is comical. There are some 69,460 coal mining jobs in the US[1], 15,900 of them "blue-collar". That's less than the number of people who work at Google[2]. I get that this is usually shorthand for blue-collar workers. But at the same time very real energy policy decisions are being made ostensibly to keep this small group of people in their jobs. Investing in better access to retraining is probably a better move. [1] https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/20/there-are-fewer-coal-miners-than-you-might-realize/?utm_term=.0571f0f95f33 https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/politics/wp/2017/03/20/t... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/273744/number-of-full-time-google-employees/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/273744/number-of-full-ti...

dang 8y ago

Please don't take HN threads on trollish tangents. With all respect to the forces of 4chan, it's off topic here.