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No one said you can't criticize him. I wouldn't go out there alone without a sure way out. But the smug, self-righteous predictable knee jerk condemnation from

by sinker 6y ago

No one said you can't criticize him. I wouldn't go out there alone without a sure way out. But the smug, self-righteous predictable knee jerk condemnation from many people I would suspect barely venture outside is, as always predictable, and distasteful.

catalogia 6y ago
'Smug self-righteous predictable knee-jerk condemnation' is also very far from 'feel[ing] entitled to curtail another person's freedom' Incidentally, you're wrong in your assumptions. Go to Alaska and ask people up there what they think of the guy. You'll not find more people critical of him in any other state. Virtually none of them are looking to curtail anybody's liberties, not least because more often than not they enjoy these same liberties. I think a lot of people in this thread have confused criticism with calls for regulation. To be frank I think this confusion betrays an authoritarian mindset.
- sinker 6y ago
  I'm not talking about the people in Alaska. I'm talking about commentators on HN. Scroll down a bit further and you'll find no end of it.
  - catalogia 6y ago
    The root of this conversation, which you replied directly to, is a quote from an Alaskan park ranger criticizing McCandless in quite strong terms. I read the full linked essay that quote comes from, and the park ranger definitely isn't calling for government regulation. On the contrary, he say > "As a park ranger both at Denali National Park, very near where McCandless died, and now at Gates of the Arctic National Park, even more remote and wild than Denali, I am exposed continually to what I will call the “McCandless Phenomenon.” People, nearly always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically no nexistent. I know the personality type because I was one of those young men." You responded to this man's informed perspective with a rant about smug people not minding their own business. You and a few other commenters then somehow judo-threw the conversation into a matter of when government regulations / curtailments of liberties are or aren't warranted.

by sinker 6y ago

catalogia 6y ago

'Smug self-righteous predictable knee-jerk condemnation' is also very far from 'feel[ing] entitled to curtail another person's freedom' Incidentally, you're wrong in your assumptions. Go to Alaska and ask people up there what they think of the guy. You'll not find more people critical of him in any other state. Virtually none of them are looking to curtail anybody's liberties, not least because more often than not they enjoy these same liberties. I think a lot of people in this thread have confused criticism with calls for regulation. To be frank I think this confusion betrays an authoritarian mindset.

sinker 6y ago
I'm not talking about the people in Alaska. I'm talking about commentators on HN. Scroll down a bit further and you'll find no end of it.
- catalogia 6y ago
  The root of this conversation, which you replied directly to, is a quote from an Alaskan park ranger criticizing McCandless in quite strong terms. I read the full linked essay that quote comes from, and the park ranger definitely isn't calling for government regulation. On the contrary, he say > "As a park ranger both at Denali National Park, very near where McCandless died, and now at Gates of the Arctic National Park, even more remote and wild than Denali, I am exposed continually to what I will call the “McCandless Phenomenon.” People, nearly always young men, come to Alaska to challenge themselves against an unforgiving wilderness landscape where convenience of access and possibility of rescue are practically no nexistent. I know the personality type because I was one of those young men." You responded to this man's informed perspective with a rant about smug people not minding their own business. You and a few other commenters then somehow judo-threw the conversation into a matter of when government regulations / curtailments of liberties are or aren't warranted.