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> Because the C student overlcass that runs the place knows it's not a meritocracy. Wow, this attitude manages to have a victim mentality, blame others, sprea

> Because the C student overlcass that runs the place knows it's not a meritocracy. Wow, this attitude manages to have a victim mentality, blame others, spread hopelessness, and be arrogant and disparaging, all in 14 words. I've heard this attitude a lot recently, and even bought into it some myself, but this comment clarifies how toxic this attitude is. There is literally nothing positive in this attitude, and I think that part of the problems with America right now is the feeling of victimization. A victim mentality never has positive long-term outcomes. A victim says "things can't change" which is why there isn't collective action. Be the change you want to see.

pteredactyl 8y ago
I think they perfectly summed up the sadness and terror of modern mainstream leftism. It'll pass
- dang 8y ago
  Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments, and especially ideological flamebait, to Hacker News? It leads to acrid and predictable discussions that are off topic here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
  - pteredactyl 8y ago
    I'll try.
olefoo 8y ago
Yes, because everyone who gets into one of our elite institutions gets there on merit and there is absolutely not a predatory aspect to the way the elite networks have arranged society that steals advantage from everyone else. It's just a victim mentality the cost to call out the structural inequities of society that cause so much pain and stress to the unlucky classes. Now hold still while we raise the costs of everything necessary to life while automating your job away. And don't you dare call out your betters for their bad behavior; that's toxic!
bittercynic 8y ago
One possible positive aspect is that it allows you to think: My current lousy situation is not the result of something internal and unchangeable, so it is worth figuring out how to change it and get into a better situation. It's easy to take that attitude too far, but maybe keeping a little bit of it around could be helpful for some.
- Gibbon1 8y ago
  That guy skipped right over the comment about collective action. For people that don't have the system pre-gamed for them the only why to fight back to prevent being exploited is collective action. Or taking lots of risks and being lucky. I'm not a take big risks and hope to be lucky kinda guy.
  - 0815test 8y ago
    The iron law of collective action is that it doesn't really work for large, dispersed groups. Collective action is how the old-boy-network perpetuates itself in the first place; you can try to raise the scale of feasible coordination so as to increase its social benefits, but it's a very hard problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Collective_Action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Collective_Action
    - Gibbon1 8y ago
      > The iron law of collective action Yet more conclusory statements.

pteredactyl 8y ago

I think they perfectly summed up the sadness and terror of modern mainstream leftism. It'll pass

dang 8y ago
Could you please stop posting unsubstantive comments, and especially ideological flamebait, to Hacker News? It leads to acrid and predictable discussions that are off topic here. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- pteredactyl 8y ago
  I'll try.

olefoo 8y ago

Yes, because everyone who gets into one of our elite institutions gets there on merit and there is absolutely not a predatory aspect to the way the elite networks have arranged society that steals advantage from everyone else. It's just a victim mentality the cost to call out the structural inequities of society that cause so much pain and stress to the unlucky classes. Now hold still while we raise the costs of everything necessary to life while automating your job away. And don't you dare call out your betters for their bad behavior; that's toxic!

bittercynic 8y ago

One possible positive aspect is that it allows you to think: My current lousy situation is not the result of something internal and unchangeable, so it is worth figuring out how to change it and get into a better situation. It's easy to take that attitude too far, but maybe keeping a little bit of it around could be helpful for some.

Gibbon1 8y ago
That guy skipped right over the comment about collective action. For people that don't have the system pre-gamed for them the only why to fight back to prevent being exploited is collective action. Or taking lots of risks and being lucky. I'm not a take big risks and hope to be lucky kinda guy.
- 0815test 8y ago
  The iron law of collective action is that it doesn't really work for large, dispersed groups. Collective action is how the old-boy-network perpetuates itself in the first place; you can try to raise the scale of feasible coordination so as to increase its social benefits, but it's a very hard problem. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Collective_Action https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Logic_of_Collective_Action
  - Gibbon1 8y ago
    > The iron law of collective action Yet more conclusory statements.