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I would never have called the discourse on this website "nuanced discussion." It's just one of many echo chambers on the internet where people think very simila

by lvs 6y ago

I would never have called the discourse on this website "nuanced discussion." It's just one of many echo chambers on the internet where people think very similarly and otherwise rigorously suppress dissent from their consensus worldview. So let's be clear about what kind of community you're looking for: one that comports with your worldview.

freehunter 6y ago
I would say from some recent conversations I've had, there is far from a consensus on HN, even on political matters.
- lvs 6y ago
  That impression, at least with respect to politics, is in my view because HN readers have an extraordinarily narrow range of education and are therefore generally uninformed about politics, history, philosophy, or the arts. They can't effectively engage in serious discussions on those topics without descending into chaos from their general state of intellectual disarray.
  - mrmonkeyman 6y ago
    I like your style.
  - chipotle_coyote 6y ago
    If your comments in this thread are a reliable indication of the way you've expressed your viewpoints in other threads on HN, it suggests an alternative theory as to why you keep getting downvoted.
    - lvs 6y ago
      No, I don't share your worldview on discourse either.
iamdamian 6y ago
I regularly see thoughtful disagreement on issues on Hacker News on a range of topics, even privacy and the ethics of tech. (That's not to say it's unbiased or that I don't share that bias—I do want to recognize that.)
- lvs 6y ago
  Yes, and I believe that's consistent with my point. It generally fits your bias, so in your view the range of discussion seems comfortable and optimal. That's precisely what I'm saying. So, for example, I could make an anticapitalist statement, or say something about how I don't think Paul Graham (or some other HN prophet) has ever uttered a philosophically novel or interesting idea, and I'd be downvoted to hell because dissent on those topics is verboten.
  - iamdamian 6y ago
    That may be true (although there may be a constructive way of phrasing an idea such that that doesn't happen, I don't know), but I don't think anyone would try to doxx you or have you fired for saying so. Do you agree?
    - lvs 6y ago
      That seems like a reasonable threshold? I should feel like this is a forum for nuanced discussion so long as nobody seeks to harm me personally? I hadn't even thought of that, but now that you raise it, I think I'll sign off.
      - iamdamian 6y ago
        I didn't intend to say that it's a reasonable threshold. I think of it more like Maslow's hierarchy, and IMO Hacker News is significantly higher than, say, Twitter.
  - amanaplanacanal 6y ago
    So the worst thing that might happen if people disagree with you is that you get downvotes? This doesn’t seem terrible to me. If the mods banned you for saying those things, maybe I would agree with you, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It sounds like you are looking for a forum without a voting mechanism.

by lvs 6y ago

freehunter 6y ago

I would say from some recent conversations I've had, there is far from a consensus on HN, even on political matters.

lvs 6y ago
That impression, at least with respect to politics, is in my view because HN readers have an extraordinarily narrow range of education and are therefore generally uninformed about politics, history, philosophy, or the arts. They can't effectively engage in serious discussions on those topics without descending into chaos from their general state of intellectual disarray.
- mrmonkeyman 6y ago
  I like your style.
- chipotle_coyote 6y ago
  If your comments in this thread are a reliable indication of the way you've expressed your viewpoints in other threads on HN, it suggests an alternative theory as to why you keep getting downvoted.
  - lvs 6y ago
    No, I don't share your worldview on discourse either.

iamdamian 6y ago

I regularly see thoughtful disagreement on issues on Hacker News on a range of topics, even privacy and the ethics of tech. (That's not to say it's unbiased or that I don't share that bias—I do want to recognize that.)

lvs 6y ago
Yes, and I believe that's consistent with my point. It generally fits your bias, so in your view the range of discussion seems comfortable and optimal. That's precisely what I'm saying. So, for example, I could make an anticapitalist statement, or say something about how I don't think Paul Graham (or some other HN prophet) has ever uttered a philosophically novel or interesting idea, and I'd be downvoted to hell because dissent on those topics is verboten.
- iamdamian 6y ago
  That may be true (although there may be a constructive way of phrasing an idea such that that doesn't happen, I don't know), but I don't think anyone would try to doxx you or have you fired for saying so. Do you agree?
  - lvs 6y ago
    That seems like a reasonable threshold? I should feel like this is a forum for nuanced discussion so long as nobody seeks to harm me personally? I hadn't even thought of that, but now that you raise it, I think I'll sign off.
    - iamdamian 6y ago
      I didn't intend to say that it's a reasonable threshold. I think of it more like Maslow's hierarchy, and IMO Hacker News is significantly higher than, say, Twitter.
- amanaplanacanal 6y ago
  So the worst thing that might happen if people disagree with you is that you get downvotes? This doesn’t seem terrible to me. If the mods banned you for saying those things, maybe I would agree with you, but that doesn’t seem to be the case. It sounds like you are looking for a forum without a voting mechanism.