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If you're finding the link a bit slow, The Internet Archive has cached a mirror. https://web.archive.org/web/20201207190930/https://antipodes.substack.com/p/pa

If you're finding the link a bit slow, The Internet Archive has cached a mirror. https://web.archive.org/web/20201207190930/https://antipodes.substack.com/p/paul-graham-is-not-a-public-intellectual https://web.archive.org/web/20201207190930/https://antipodes...

kyrra 6y ago
Thanks for the mirror (especially since the original was deleted). For those that don't know the author, Michael O. Church has been banned on multiple platforms around the internet (HN, Wikipedia, Quora, and probably others). He also had an interesting tenure at Google. I believe the cause for the forum bans were about sock-puppet accounts, but he also just tends to annoy people.
- postingpals 6y ago
  His ability to annoy people seems to stem entirely or mostly from the fact that he writes about topics, like this one, that are uncomfortable for people to hear. Just to clarify for anyone thinking he goes around harassing people.
  - danbolt 6y ago
    Yeah, I wasn't familiar with the author before, but I more or less agreed with the contents of the article. I appreciate that Church recognized the unpopular nerd narrative in PG's essays. It always felt flat to me.
  - dumbfounder 6y ago
    Not for me, I don't like him for his extreme vitriol. He says he has no reason to dislike Paul Graham, but he clearly hates him with a passion for his views. Dissect and disagree with his views, no problem, but the extreme nature of Church's rhetoric makes me not take anything of his seriously. How can one be seeking truth, as he says the intellectual must do, with such blinding hatred?
  - mlyle 6y ago
    You don't need to overtly harass people to be deliberately abrasive and annoying. A whole lot of this seems pseudo-honestly crafted just to troll.. e.g. > So, let’s talk about this. No one gets bullied in American culture because he is smart; people get bullied because they are different. It is as true in elementary school as it is in high school. It is more true in the typical workplace than it is in high school. Riight. Not all types of being different are equally celebrated, and high school and middle school are some of the most political and unkind places in our society. For a whole lot of us, leaving school did in fact make things better, but he just dismisses and invalidates this experience in a way that's loaded with vitriol and mockery.
    - coldtea 6y ago
      >You don't need to overtly harass people to be deliberately abrasive and annoying. Yes, it's enough that others are cry-babies who can't stand criticism...
  - pas 6y ago
    I find his treatment of the topics to be uncomfortably unproductive, besides the abrasiveness.
  - bJGVygG7MQVF8c 6y ago
    To be fair, his writing also appears to consist primarily of sophomoric moralizing...
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - bmurphy1976 6y ago
    Been following mchurch for years now. A few coworkers attended classes of his and a spouse worked with mchurch for a period of time, so he's well known here. While I agree with a lot of his goals, I very much disagree with his approach. His writing is very acidic and his past behavior is questionable. I also believe in incremental change whereas he seems to want revolutionary change. The problem with revolution is you never really know what you are going to get on the other side. Most revolutions end like Syria, not Tunisia. So I very much disagree with this approach even though we mostly want the same thing.
    - postingpals 6y ago
      You are entitled to your opinion but I believe the climate crisis alone is reason enough to believe incremental change is not always a good approach.
kneel 6y ago
Luckily for Michael Church the hackernews crowd isn't much for cancelling someone. By removing the article so quickly he basically self dunked. Good for him.
- ashtonkem 6y ago
  The fact that this got flagged off the front page within minutes really undermines your point.
deleted 6y ago
[deleted]

kyrra 6y ago

Thanks for the mirror (especially since the original was deleted). For those that don't know the author, Michael O. Church has been banned on multiple platforms around the internet (HN, Wikipedia, Quora, and probably others). He also had an interesting tenure at Google. I believe the cause for the forum bans were about sock-puppet accounts, but he also just tends to annoy people.

postingpals 6y ago
His ability to annoy people seems to stem entirely or mostly from the fact that he writes about topics, like this one, that are uncomfortable for people to hear. Just to clarify for anyone thinking he goes around harassing people.
- danbolt 6y ago
  Yeah, I wasn't familiar with the author before, but I more or less agreed with the contents of the article. I appreciate that Church recognized the unpopular nerd narrative in PG's essays. It always felt flat to me.
- dumbfounder 6y ago
  Not for me, I don't like him for his extreme vitriol. He says he has no reason to dislike Paul Graham, but he clearly hates him with a passion for his views. Dissect and disagree with his views, no problem, but the extreme nature of Church's rhetoric makes me not take anything of his seriously. How can one be seeking truth, as he says the intellectual must do, with such blinding hatred?
- mlyle 6y ago
  You don't need to overtly harass people to be deliberately abrasive and annoying. A whole lot of this seems pseudo-honestly crafted just to troll.. e.g. > So, let’s talk about this. No one gets bullied in American culture because he is smart; people get bullied because they are different. It is as true in elementary school as it is in high school. It is more true in the typical workplace than it is in high school. Riight. Not all types of being different are equally celebrated, and high school and middle school are some of the most political and unkind places in our society. For a whole lot of us, leaving school did in fact make things better, but he just dismisses and invalidates this experience in a way that's loaded with vitriol and mockery.
  - coldtea 6y ago
    >You don't need to overtly harass people to be deliberately abrasive and annoying. Yes, it's enough that others are cry-babies who can't stand criticism...
- pas 6y ago
  I find his treatment of the topics to be uncomfortably unproductive, besides the abrasiveness.
- bJGVygG7MQVF8c 6y ago
  To be fair, his writing also appears to consist primarily of sophomoric moralizing...
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- bmurphy1976 6y ago
  Been following mchurch for years now. A few coworkers attended classes of his and a spouse worked with mchurch for a period of time, so he's well known here. While I agree with a lot of his goals, I very much disagree with his approach. His writing is very acidic and his past behavior is questionable. I also believe in incremental change whereas he seems to want revolutionary change. The problem with revolution is you never really know what you are going to get on the other side. Most revolutions end like Syria, not Tunisia. So I very much disagree with this approach even though we mostly want the same thing.
  - postingpals 6y ago
    You are entitled to your opinion but I believe the climate crisis alone is reason enough to believe incremental change is not always a good approach.

kneel 6y ago

Luckily for Michael Church the hackernews crowd isn't much for cancelling someone. By removing the article so quickly he basically self dunked. Good for him.

ashtonkem 6y ago
The fact that this got flagged off the front page within minutes really undermines your point.

deleted 6y ago

[deleted]