44 ms·

> Okay, try putting "Card-carrying gun owner and anti-abortion activist" on your resume and apply for big tech companies. Well, a resume isn't a place for that

> Okay, try putting "Card-carrying gun owner and anti-abortion activist" on your resume and apply for big tech companies. Well, a resume isn't a place for that sort of thing at all, but I do pretty much that now. My name is unique - look me up. For what that's worth, a good portion of my posts even here on HN have something to do with guns. I try to be more "informative" than "confrontational", but that's because of the nature of the site more than anything else. I'm here to discuss, share, and learn, not to argue. I'm definitely a "card-carrying gun owner". I literally put guns in the hands of children on a regular basis (I'm a 4-H youth firearms instructor), a past board member of a state gun rights organization, and an outspoken advocate for the recognition of individuals' rights to both defend themselves and to own and carry the most effective tools possible to that end. It would be fair to say that I'm anti-abortion as well, with the caveat that I'm much more anti-government. I believe abortion is a terrible thing, but I also believe that giving government the power to prevent it would be much, much worse. > Or hell, even start a personal blog using your real name talking about opinions that are anathema to coastal dwellers. I need to redesign my blog, and post more often, but hey - it's still in my real name: http://www.lyndsysimon.com/category/politics.html http://www.lyndsysimon.com/category/politics.html > If you actually had opinions many people disagreed with strongly, you'd be bullied and held back as well. Did you read my last paragraph? I'm an anarchist. The license plate on my Jeep is literally "ANARCHY." I'm actually not sure I could name a political position that's more strongly opposed by more people. [edited for spelling]

magashna 7y ago
>I'm an anarchist. The license plate on my Jeep is literally "ANARCHY." Paying the government a premium to say you don't believe in it, that's rich.
- LyndsySimon 7y ago
  The delicious irony did not escape me: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/8qur2z/i_paid_the_state_again_for_the_privilege_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/8qur2z/...
  - CamperBob2 7y ago
    It's massively OT for this thread, but it's interesting that you consider anarchy the natural state. Aren't humans absolutely hardwired to form hierarchies and seek leaders? It seems that we're just as compelled to create presidents, kings, and gods for ourselves as pack animals are to follow their alphas. The lone wolf is the vanishingly-rare exception in the animal kingdom, just as the anarchist is in the realm of human politics. NTTAWWT as far as having a lone-wolf personality type is concerned, but any model of human interaction that seeks to exalt the lone-wolf nature in each of us seems bound to fail. (Small-scale egalitarianism is just a separate case of that, since the same hierarchies will inevitably emerge between groups.) If this condition isn't "natural," then why do things always -- virtually without exception and never sustainably so -- turn out that way?
    - pequalsnp 7y ago
      Not GP, but I stumbled across this website in college[1] that had a lot of interesting articles on anarchy and “the worker’s collective.” I don’t agree with the viewpoints but I learned a lot from it! Really cool material. [1] - https://crimethinc.com/ https://crimethinc.com/
    - LyndsySimon 7y ago
      I don't think I disagree with anything you said here, I just sorta see it from a different perspective. I didn't mean "natural" as "default" or "as found in nature" - I meant it in the sense of a "natural right". Anarchy is the social and political system we start with, and government is a distortion placed upon it. Further, government's nature is to grow in scope and power over time. This growth leads to tyranny, and eventually, to rebellion. Honestly, I'm not sure that a truly anarchic society is either possible or stable. I see it as an ideal, not something that I think is reasonable to see in my lifetime. To put it another way - I don't want to destroy the government, I want to shrink it to the point that people question the need for it and eventually just decide to stop pretending we have one.
- mtberatwork 7y ago
  Reminds me of the people who pay extra to the state to have the Gadsden flag license plate.
  - blaser-waffle 7y ago
    They love those in Virginia
    - LyndsySimon 7y ago
      Ha! Funnily enough, I lived there for five years. My Arkansas "ANARCHY" plate replaced my Virginai "4NO GOV" plate: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/279byb/after_over_a_year_driving_a_jeep_with_expired/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/279byb/...
asdfgasd 7y ago
> I'm an anarchist. The license plate on my Jeep is literally "ANARCHY." I'm actually not sure I could name a political position that's more strongly opposed by more people. You're not an anarchist and you should stop try to adopt an identity with a vivid anti-capitalist history to represent your desire for corporate feudalism with guns. Anarchists are socialists and anything otherwise is misusing the word. You aren't harassed for your beliefs because people with your economic beliefs literally hold every branch of government. I'm sure you'll come back with something about republicans wanting big government to police morality, but those differences mean almost nothing when your economic incentives are aligned.
- LyndsySimon 7y ago
  > Anarchists are socialists and anything otherwise is misusing the word. So.. you're saying that the other anarchists "own" the word itself? How does that work, exactly? Is it their private property, or merely a personal possession? I jest, of course; I mean no offense. The fact is, "Anarcho-Capitalist" is the most precise term for the economic side of my beliefs I've found. "Voluntarist" is the most precise term for the social side. I'll continue to use those terms until I find more descriptive ones. > I'm sure you'll come back with something about republicans wanting big government to police morality, but those differences mean almost nothing when your economic incentives are aligned. I'm pretty disillusioned with both major parties; I'm not going to be defending "Republicans". I generally get along better socially with people on the political right, but that's because I grew up in a "Red State" not because of a greater number of shared beliefs.
kd3 7y ago
I like your approach very much.
paulddraper 7y ago
> Well, a resume isn't a place for that sort of thing at all Exactly. Which is why people put different stuff on LinkedIn, FB, and dating apps. When you combine those three, your dating profile is your resume is your friends and family persona. > but I do pretty much that now Good on you. But it's not just alarmist speculation to say those things can have a serious impact on your career. Mozilla's CEO was fired (or some version of that) for having years before donated a modest sum to a then-majority-popular activism group. If the inventor of JavaScript can be pushed out for a now-unpopular stance, imagine the career consequences for the rest of us.

magashna 7y ago

>I'm an anarchist. The license plate on my Jeep is literally "ANARCHY." Paying the government a premium to say you don't believe in it, that's rich.

LyndsySimon 7y ago
The delicious irony did not escape me: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/8qur2z/i_paid_the_state_again_for_the_privilege_of/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/8qur2z/...
- CamperBob2 7y ago
  It's massively OT for this thread, but it's interesting that you consider anarchy the natural state. Aren't humans absolutely hardwired to form hierarchies and seek leaders? It seems that we're just as compelled to create presidents, kings, and gods for ourselves as pack animals are to follow their alphas. The lone wolf is the vanishingly-rare exception in the animal kingdom, just as the anarchist is in the realm of human politics. NTTAWWT as far as having a lone-wolf personality type is concerned, but any model of human interaction that seeks to exalt the lone-wolf nature in each of us seems bound to fail. (Small-scale egalitarianism is just a separate case of that, since the same hierarchies will inevitably emerge between groups.) If this condition isn't "natural," then why do things always -- virtually without exception and never sustainably so -- turn out that way?
  - pequalsnp 7y ago
    Not GP, but I stumbled across this website in college[1] that had a lot of interesting articles on anarchy and “the worker’s collective.” I don’t agree with the viewpoints but I learned a lot from it! Really cool material. [1] - https://crimethinc.com/ https://crimethinc.com/
  - LyndsySimon 7y ago
    I don't think I disagree with anything you said here, I just sorta see it from a different perspective. I didn't mean "natural" as "default" or "as found in nature" - I meant it in the sense of a "natural right". Anarchy is the social and political system we start with, and government is a distortion placed upon it. Further, government's nature is to grow in scope and power over time. This growth leads to tyranny, and eventually, to rebellion. Honestly, I'm not sure that a truly anarchic society is either possible or stable. I see it as an ideal, not something that I think is reasonable to see in my lifetime. To put it another way - I don't want to destroy the government, I want to shrink it to the point that people question the need for it and eventually just decide to stop pretending we have one.
mtberatwork 7y ago
Reminds me of the people who pay extra to the state to have the Gadsden flag license plate.
- blaser-waffle 7y ago
  They love those in Virginia
  - LyndsySimon 7y ago
    Ha! Funnily enough, I lived there for five years. My Arkansas "ANARCHY" plate replaced my Virginai "4NO GOV" plate: https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/279byb/after_over_a_year_driving_a_jeep_with_expired/ https://www.reddit.com/r/Anarcho_Capitalism/comments/279byb/...

asdfgasd 7y ago

> I'm an anarchist. The license plate on my Jeep is literally "ANARCHY." I'm actually not sure I could name a political position that's more strongly opposed by more people. You're not an anarchist and you should stop try to adopt an identity with a vivid anti-capitalist history to represent your desire for corporate feudalism with guns. Anarchists are socialists and anything otherwise is misusing the word. You aren't harassed for your beliefs because people with your economic beliefs literally hold every branch of government. I'm sure you'll come back with something about republicans wanting big government to police morality, but those differences mean almost nothing when your economic incentives are aligned.

LyndsySimon 7y ago
> Anarchists are socialists and anything otherwise is misusing the word. So.. you're saying that the other anarchists "own" the word itself? How does that work, exactly? Is it their private property, or merely a personal possession? I jest, of course; I mean no offense. The fact is, "Anarcho-Capitalist" is the most precise term for the economic side of my beliefs I've found. "Voluntarist" is the most precise term for the social side. I'll continue to use those terms until I find more descriptive ones. > I'm sure you'll come back with something about republicans wanting big government to police morality, but those differences mean almost nothing when your economic incentives are aligned. I'm pretty disillusioned with both major parties; I'm not going to be defending "Republicans". I generally get along better socially with people on the political right, but that's because I grew up in a "Red State" not because of a greater number of shared beliefs.

kd3 7y ago

I like your approach very much.

paulddraper 7y ago

> Well, a resume isn't a place for that sort of thing at all Exactly. Which is why people put different stuff on LinkedIn, FB, and dating apps. When you combine those three, your dating profile is your resume is your friends and family persona. > but I do pretty much that now Good on you. But it's not just alarmist speculation to say those things can have a serious impact on your career. Mozilla's CEO was fired (or some version of that) for having years before donated a modest sum to a then-majority-popular activism group. If the inventor of JavaScript can be pushed out for a now-unpopular stance, imagine the career consequences for the rest of us.