3 ms·

This is such a hyperbolic response that it’s hard to actually engage with it; I’m not sure that this is helping the conversation at all.

ThrowawayBandit 6y ago
This is not hyperbolic. That is what is extremely sad, and why I picked the topic I did as suggested reading: One important thing is to understand how these things start and get out of hand. Let's not bury our heads in the sand and refuse to see what is happening.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  The reference to the Red Guards is indeed hyperbolic and extremely loaded. You are comparing someone making a technical change to a government sponsored paramilitary organization that murdered thousands of people. It’s extremely hard to engage with the conversation when your position is that one side, if not stopped, will result in mass scale murder. If I make a good faith argument for this naming change, are you going to accuse me of supporting a proto red band?
  - ThrowawayBandit 6y ago
    I'll let you read about the topic then we can discuss, but do not think that what is happening is as innocuous as a "someone making a technical change". This has already gone far beyond that and we are really already quite close to "public denunciations" or the attacks on statues/the deads, etc. as it happened then.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
    - tangue 6y ago
      He's right. No fucking engineer is being thrown inside a camp starving to death so yes the comparison is hyperbolic.
      - mytailorisrich 6y ago
        Flagging the guy's comments to make then disappear would tend to support the comparison he made, though.
        ashtonkem 6y ago
        I disagree; I see this as HN responding poorly to the form of the argument, not the substance. If I were to go around and make comparisons between right wing policies and nazism, I would also expect a rapid downvote into oblivion. Would that downvote prove my point, or would it just show that HN disapproves of my invocation of Godwin?
        ThrowawayBandit 6y ago
        That's not what I did either in form and in substance. There is a worrying trend of trying to force changes of vocabulary (not only this one) and to purge history for ideological purposes and we're also seeing people suffering for not embracing that trend or, worse, criticising it (as I wrote this is getting close to "public denunciations"). These are dynamics very similar, albeit not as extreme, to what happened during the Cultural Revolution and other campaigns in the USSR/Eastern Europe during the 20th century. Fighting racism is a good cause, of course. But arguably so what fighting against feodalism and the exploitation of the working class, and see what happened... I did not call anyone a "Red Guard", I wrote that the current situation was "getting there", and I think it could, indeed. If you guys want to censor that comment as well, go ahead, but then please acknowledge where this is going.

ThrowawayBandit 6y ago

This is not hyperbolic. That is what is extremely sad, and why I picked the topic I did as suggested reading: One important thing is to understand how these things start and get out of hand. Let's not bury our heads in the sand and refuse to see what is happening.

ashtonkem 6y ago
The reference to the Red Guards is indeed hyperbolic and extremely loaded. You are comparing someone making a technical change to a government sponsored paramilitary organization that murdered thousands of people. It’s extremely hard to engage with the conversation when your position is that one side, if not stopped, will result in mass scale murder. If I make a good faith argument for this naming change, are you going to accuse me of supporting a proto red band?
- ThrowawayBandit 6y ago
  I'll let you read about the topic then we can discuss, but do not think that what is happening is as innocuous as a "someone making a technical change". This has already gone far beyond that and we are really already quite close to "public denunciations" or the attacks on statues/the deads, etc. as it happened then.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - tangue 6y ago
    He's right. No fucking engineer is being thrown inside a camp starving to death so yes the comparison is hyperbolic.
    - mytailorisrich 6y ago
      Flagging the guy's comments to make then disappear would tend to support the comparison he made, though.
      - ashtonkem 6y ago
        I disagree; I see this as HN responding poorly to the form of the argument, not the substance. If I were to go around and make comparisons between right wing policies and nazism, I would also expect a rapid downvote into oblivion. Would that downvote prove my point, or would it just show that HN disapproves of my invocation of Godwin?
        ThrowawayBandit 6y ago
        That's not what I did either in form and in substance. There is a worrying trend of trying to force changes of vocabulary (not only this one) and to purge history for ideological purposes and we're also seeing people suffering for not embracing that trend or, worse, criticising it (as I wrote this is getting close to "public denunciations"). These are dynamics very similar, albeit not as extreme, to what happened during the Cultural Revolution and other campaigns in the USSR/Eastern Europe during the 20th century. Fighting racism is a good cause, of course. But arguably so what fighting against feodalism and the exploitation of the working class, and see what happened... I did not call anyone a "Red Guard", I wrote that the current situation was "getting there", and I think it could, indeed. If you guys want to censor that comment as well, go ahead, but then please acknowledge where this is going.