4 ms·

Historically Hollow: The Cries of Populism

29 points by mhb 7y ago

Apocryphon 7y ago
“If we’re talking about the year 1900, I’m afraid we’ll never really know. Yet what I’ve seen with my own eyes during the last fifteen years has done much to cement my out-of-sample confidence.” If the author alleges that populists have their heads in the clouds, he must have his head in the sand. Because this article is as full of rhetoric and bereft or facts and figures as he claims them to be. All emotional appeals, no real analysis.
- cromwellian 7y ago
  Isn’t that the same as the privacy populists who obsess about data, most of whom lived in advanced democracies in which the data isn’t used for serious assaults on people, where most of the harmof theoretical, imagined, or hasn’t happened yet (eg your insurance company gets your social networking data and uses it to deny you coverage) There certainly is a reason to have rigorous privacy and principle of minimalism, especially if you live ina police state without civil liberties, but a lot of arguments you are on HN are emotional and hyperbolic just like the OP. It seems the more privileged someone is, the more their hierarchy of needs is met, the more they catastrophize things.
  - acollins1331 7y ago
    The data isn't being used, yet. As safeguards continue to erode and storage becomes more massive it's impossible to think it wouldn't be used improperly. I'm no fan of trump, but what would the Mueller report have looked like if every site he visited and phone number he dialed and text message he had sent since he was a child was stored in a US govt server they could've just walked into. If you don't see this is a system that will destroy our advanced democracies through perfect surveillance and blacknail, then I question the amount of thought you've put into this area.
  - astazangasta 7y ago
    >the same as the privacy populists who obsess about data, most of whom lived in advanced democracies in which the data isn’t used for serious assaults on people This observation betrays a serious misunderstanding of the way democracy functions. The reason these assaults don't happen (or rather, don't happen more, because they do happen) is there is a robust public discourse that is critical of these moves and keeps them in check. Democracies don't magically grant people rights, they must be fought for.
ArtRichards 7y ago
Im not sure if this is satire...
- 13415 7y ago
  It sure sounds like one. Be that as it may, it's definitely not worth reading.
- TheAsprngHacker 7y ago
  I don't think the article is satire. The website seems to be a right-libertarian website, meaning that it promotes laissez-faire capitalism.
Proven 7y ago
Well said. People who complain against free services should simply stop using them. But when they call for increased government regulation of such services, you know thy aren't bothered by the service itself but by the fact that people have a choice to use it to improve their lives (whether it's Uber drivers or Facebook users). Statist populists, precisely.

29 points by mhb 7y ago

“If we’re talking about the year 1900, I’m afraid we’ll never really know. Yet what I’ve seen with my own eyes during the last fifteen years has done much to cement my out-of-sample confidence.” If the author alleges that populists have their heads in the clouds, he must have his head in the sand. Because this article is as full of rhetoric and bereft or facts and figures as he claims them to be. All emotional appeals, no real analysis.

cromwellian 7y ago
Isn’t that the same as the privacy populists who obsess about data, most of whom lived in advanced democracies in which the data isn’t used for serious assaults on people, where most of the harmof theoretical, imagined, or hasn’t happened yet (eg your insurance company gets your social networking data and uses it to deny you coverage) There certainly is a reason to have rigorous privacy and principle of minimalism, especially if you live ina police state without civil liberties, but a lot of arguments you are on HN are emotional and hyperbolic just like the OP. It seems the more privileged someone is, the more their hierarchy of needs is met, the more they catastrophize things.
- acollins1331 7y ago
  The data isn't being used, yet. As safeguards continue to erode and storage becomes more massive it's impossible to think it wouldn't be used improperly. I'm no fan of trump, but what would the Mueller report have looked like if every site he visited and phone number he dialed and text message he had sent since he was a child was stored in a US govt server they could've just walked into. If you don't see this is a system that will destroy our advanced democracies through perfect surveillance and blacknail, then I question the amount of thought you've put into this area.
- astazangasta 7y ago
  >the same as the privacy populists who obsess about data, most of whom lived in advanced democracies in which the data isn’t used for serious assaults on people This observation betrays a serious misunderstanding of the way democracy functions. The reason these assaults don't happen (or rather, don't happen more, because they do happen) is there is a robust public discourse that is critical of these moves and keeps them in check. Democracies don't magically grant people rights, they must be fought for.

ArtRichards 7y ago

Im not sure if this is satire...

13415 7y ago
It sure sounds like one. Be that as it may, it's definitely not worth reading.
TheAsprngHacker 7y ago
I don't think the article is satire. The website seems to be a right-libertarian website, meaning that it promotes laissez-faire capitalism.

Proven 7y ago

Well said. People who complain against free services should simply stop using them. But when they call for increased government regulation of such services, you know thy aren't bothered by the service itself but by the fact that people have a choice to use it to improve their lives (whether it's Uber drivers or Facebook users). Statist populists, precisely.