8 ms·

Notch is said to be a deeply unhappy person, or at least he was a few years ago. He also made a hard right-wing turn. https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/technolo

Notch is said to be a deeply unhappy person, or at least he was a few years ago. He also made a hard right-wing turn. https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/technology/minecraft-creator-tweets/index.html https://money.cnn.com/2015/08/31/technology/minecraft-creato... https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/online-conduct-leaves-markus-notch-persson-out-of-minecraft-10th-anniversary/ https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2019/04/online-conduct-leaves...

zanmat0 6y ago
>He also made a hard right-wing turn. Is that problematic in and of itself?
- scarface74 6y ago
  He still believes in the QAnon and PizzaGate conspiracy. That is kind of “problematic”.
  - solarkraft 6y ago
    Unfortunately this doesn't seem as unfounded as I had initially thought: https://web.archive.org/web/20200118060902if_/https://twitter.com/notch/status/901192994971410433 https://web.archive.org/web/20200118060902if_/https://twitte... Yet I couldn't clearly claim that he does on the basis of this, as it's just confusing to me, no sure whether that's his flavor of irony. Do you have some more evidence to prove that he believes these things? I had previously seen him as weird and provocative, but not definitely right-wing.
    - brokensegue 6y ago
      https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Notch https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Notch
  - Yetanfou 6y ago
    It isn't problematic, just silly. There is no need to police other people's thoughts as long as they keep within the bounds of the law. He is even free to express those thoughts, within the bounds of the law, just like people are free to hollder 'death to America' during demonstrations in Oakland. One of the pillars of a well-functioning state is that things which are not forbidden by law are allowed. It might not be wise, it might not be smart, it might sound stupid (Qanon) or reprehensible (death to America) but it is allowed.
    - karpierz 6y ago
      I'm confused, you started the argument off by claiming that spreading PizzaGate isn't problematic and then went into a series of arguments for why it should be legal? Can legal things not be problematic?
      - Yetanfou 6y ago
        I'm confused by your confusion given the fact that I clearly stated that whatever someone says has to be within the bounds of the law. As far as I can see there is no room for confusion here, freedom of expression is bounded by certain laws which forbid a number of things. As long as you don't violate those laws you can say whatever you want.
  - chrisco255 6y ago
    Some people still think Trump is a Russian agent, on account of 3 years of conspiracy theories being promoted by the left wing media and their loyalists in the CIA and FBI. That's extremely problematic. QAnon and PizzaGate are fringe at best (and its not entirely clear how consequential they are), but probably half the country still does not realize that the Obama administration (and its loyalists) illegally spied on the Trump campaign, entrapped members of Trump admin (General Flynn), and did worse than Nixon could have ever dreamed of.
    - maest 6y ago
      I'm not sure I understand your point?
      - chrisco255 6y ago
        People like to magnify fringe conspiracies while completely ignoring mainstream ones, when the mainstream ones are actually dangerous for democracy. The police power of government was leveraged against a political rival for explicit political reasons and no one has been punished for it. Extremely dangerous precedent.
        maest 6y ago
        Thta's not what was being discussed, though.
        chrisco255 6y ago
        Yes, it's called a segue. Original topic was Larry Page and neither Q nor pizzagate have anything to do with him.
- clumpthump 6y ago
  Yes.
  - refurb 6y ago
    Stop thinking thoughts I don’t like!!
Yetanfou 6y ago
> He also made a hard right-wing turn. ...or he refused to kowtow to the dominant narrative after which he gets accused of 'making a right-wing turn' in the same way believers are accused of being sinners. He has, after all, what is often called fuck-you money so he no longer needs to fear being cancelled. It is way past time for the stigma on other than left-libertarian political opinions to be dropped. It should be clear from the past few months that those who hold left-libertarian views are not automatically 'good' people, nor are those who hold right-conservative views automatically 'bad' people. Society benefits from having people on both sides of the spectrum, left-libertarians and right-conservatives.
- tehjoker 6y ago
  All billionaires are right-wing. They uphold and embody social inequality. Whether they endorse rigid social divisions along cultural lines is just extra gravy.
  - syshum 6y ago
    Only if you consider everyone that does not support full on Authoritarian Communism "right wing", and allow for zero classic liberals, libertarians, and 100's other world views. This is the problem with the narrative on the internet today, anyone that is not collectivist, is not full on Socialist must be "Right wing"
    - tehjoker 6y ago
      During the monarchy, liberals were left wing (the "radical republicans"). After they won, liberals became the defenders of the status quo and are thus the right wing. There are people further right that wish to roll the clock backwards.
      - chrisco255 6y ago
        The Radical Republicans refers to a group of anti-slavery congressmen in the 1800s up to, during, and after the American Civil War. There was no monarchy at the time.
nodesocket 6y ago
> A Microsoft spokesperson told Variety that the reason for his exclusion is the "comments and opinions" Persson has expressed on Twitter, saying that they "do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang, and are not representative of Minecraft." Apparently you're only allowed to have freedom of speech if it fits in the tech left narrative. Show me an example of a extremist left person being denied access to a company event, let alone the founder of the company? Seems downright hypocritical to me.
- mbgerring 6y ago
  I've met several people involved in union organizing at household name tech companies who have been disciplined by the companies they work for for exercising their "free speech" rights. You don't mean "tech left" here, you mean "liberal".
  - nodesocket 6y ago
    organizing unions against your employer is not free speech. Mojang was on social media and got blacklisted (cancel culture), completely different.
    - tehjoker 6y ago
      It's actually an activity protected by law.
  - a1369209993 6y ago
    They're talking about the variety of "left" endorsed by tech companies; of course that doesn't include organizing unions.
dang 6y ago
Please don't put ideological flamebait into HN threads like this. It leads to ideological flamewars. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html (We've detached this thread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24376865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24376865).

zanmat0 6y ago

>He also made a hard right-wing turn. Is that problematic in and of itself?

scarface74 6y ago
He still believes in the QAnon and PizzaGate conspiracy. That is kind of “problematic”.
- solarkraft 6y ago
  Unfortunately this doesn't seem as unfounded as I had initially thought: https://web.archive.org/web/20200118060902if_/https://twitter.com/notch/status/901192994971410433 https://web.archive.org/web/20200118060902if_/https://twitte... Yet I couldn't clearly claim that he does on the basis of this, as it's just confusing to me, no sure whether that's his flavor of irony. Do you have some more evidence to prove that he believes these things? I had previously seen him as weird and provocative, but not definitely right-wing.
  - brokensegue 6y ago
    https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Notch https://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Notch
- Yetanfou 6y ago
  It isn't problematic, just silly. There is no need to police other people's thoughts as long as they keep within the bounds of the law. He is even free to express those thoughts, within the bounds of the law, just like people are free to hollder 'death to America' during demonstrations in Oakland. One of the pillars of a well-functioning state is that things which are not forbidden by law are allowed. It might not be wise, it might not be smart, it might sound stupid (Qanon) or reprehensible (death to America) but it is allowed.
  - karpierz 6y ago
    I'm confused, you started the argument off by claiming that spreading PizzaGate isn't problematic and then went into a series of arguments for why it should be legal? Can legal things not be problematic?
    - Yetanfou 6y ago
      I'm confused by your confusion given the fact that I clearly stated that whatever someone says has to be within the bounds of the law. As far as I can see there is no room for confusion here, freedom of expression is bounded by certain laws which forbid a number of things. As long as you don't violate those laws you can say whatever you want.
- chrisco255 6y ago
  Some people still think Trump is a Russian agent, on account of 3 years of conspiracy theories being promoted by the left wing media and their loyalists in the CIA and FBI. That's extremely problematic. QAnon and PizzaGate are fringe at best (and its not entirely clear how consequential they are), but probably half the country still does not realize that the Obama administration (and its loyalists) illegally spied on the Trump campaign, entrapped members of Trump admin (General Flynn), and did worse than Nixon could have ever dreamed of.
  - maest 6y ago
    I'm not sure I understand your point?
    - chrisco255 6y ago
      People like to magnify fringe conspiracies while completely ignoring mainstream ones, when the mainstream ones are actually dangerous for democracy. The police power of government was leveraged against a political rival for explicit political reasons and no one has been punished for it. Extremely dangerous precedent.
      - maest 6y ago
        Thta's not what was being discussed, though.
        chrisco255 6y ago
        Yes, it's called a segue. Original topic was Larry Page and neither Q nor pizzagate have anything to do with him.
clumpthump 6y ago
Yes.
- refurb 6y ago
  Stop thinking thoughts I don’t like!!

Yetanfou 6y ago

> He also made a hard right-wing turn. ...or he refused to kowtow to the dominant narrative after which he gets accused of 'making a right-wing turn' in the same way believers are accused of being sinners. He has, after all, what is often called fuck-you money so he no longer needs to fear being cancelled. It is way past time for the stigma on other than left-libertarian political opinions to be dropped. It should be clear from the past few months that those who hold left-libertarian views are not automatically 'good' people, nor are those who hold right-conservative views automatically 'bad' people. Society benefits from having people on both sides of the spectrum, left-libertarians and right-conservatives.

tehjoker 6y ago
All billionaires are right-wing. They uphold and embody social inequality. Whether they endorse rigid social divisions along cultural lines is just extra gravy.
- syshum 6y ago
  Only if you consider everyone that does not support full on Authoritarian Communism "right wing", and allow for zero classic liberals, libertarians, and 100's other world views. This is the problem with the narrative on the internet today, anyone that is not collectivist, is not full on Socialist must be "Right wing"
  - tehjoker 6y ago
    During the monarchy, liberals were left wing (the "radical republicans"). After they won, liberals became the defenders of the status quo and are thus the right wing. There are people further right that wish to roll the clock backwards.
    - chrisco255 6y ago
      The Radical Republicans refers to a group of anti-slavery congressmen in the 1800s up to, during, and after the American Civil War. There was no monarchy at the time.

nodesocket 6y ago

> A Microsoft spokesperson told Variety that the reason for his exclusion is the "comments and opinions" Persson has expressed on Twitter, saying that they "do not reflect those of Microsoft or Mojang, and are not representative of Minecraft." Apparently you're only allowed to have freedom of speech if it fits in the tech left narrative. Show me an example of a extremist left person being denied access to a company event, let alone the founder of the company? Seems downright hypocritical to me.

mbgerring 6y ago
I've met several people involved in union organizing at household name tech companies who have been disciplined by the companies they work for for exercising their "free speech" rights. You don't mean "tech left" here, you mean "liberal".
- nodesocket 6y ago
  organizing unions against your employer is not free speech. Mojang was on social media and got blacklisted (cancel culture), completely different.
  - tehjoker 6y ago
    It's actually an activity protected by law.
- a1369209993 6y ago
  They're talking about the variety of "left" endorsed by tech companies; of course that doesn't include organizing unions.

dang 6y ago

Please don't put ideological flamebait into HN threads like this. It leads to ideological flamewars. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html (We've detached this thread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24376865 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24376865).