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This article deeply, deeply fails to resonate with me. I'm not outraged. I'm not outraged by some guy making some poltiically incorrect statement, I'm not parti

This article deeply, deeply fails to resonate with me. I'm not outraged. I'm not outraged by some guy making some poltiically incorrect statement, I'm not particularly outrage by the people who sleuth through their twitter comments to find a reason to be outraged. It's just not important. What's more- it seems it's only important to people who already think it's important. It was both a reason for RMS to leave the FSF and not a reason for him to leave the FSF. It was entirely determined by how much he felt accountable to outrage. The thing is though, I don't personally believe that it should be all or nothing. I don't want to go on your crusade, but I do want to discuss things and I think we can say things are bad without the tandem groups who are "cancelling" people and decrying "cancelling" people. Both those groups take extreme stances to stifle reasonable discussion. The constant railing against "cancellation" is just as stupid and unthinking as the people who want to form a mob and "cancel" people.

Thorentis 6y ago
What is stupid about the constant railing against cancellation, when groups exist that do want to form mobs and ruin somebody's career over a comment made 10 years ago?
- Traster 6y ago
  What I'm saying is that the correct response to those mobs is to ignore them or discuss their points on their merits. What often happens (particularly on HN) is a counter-mob forms that rails against the general idea of cancellation, despite the fact that often there are actually underlying reasons for being aggreived. If someone said something stupid 10 years ago the correct answer isn't for them to be fired, it's for them to apologise. But instead we see one group proclaim "Off with his head" and another group simply counter-mobilize. You see it even in the most extreme scenarios, today on HN we've literally got an article about Harvard closing down something because of it's links to Epstein, and people talking about "cancel culture". There actually are degrees of badness that we need to talk about beyond tagging everything as "cancel culture".
- matthewmacleod 6y ago
  Because it's a dumbass catchphrase made up to make you outraged and you're buying in to it.
  - dang 6y ago
    It looks like you've crossed into using HN primarily for ideological battle. That's one line at which we ban an account—regardless of what side you're battling for or against—because it's not what this site is for and destroys what it is for. I'm not going to ban you right now, but if you would please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the intended spirit of this site—thoughtful conversation and intellectual curiosity—more to heart, we'd be grateful. Every user needs to follow the rules and use HN as intended regardless of how wrong others are or how badly they behave. Otherwise we just end up in a downward spiral.

Thorentis 6y ago

What is stupid about the constant railing against cancellation, when groups exist that do want to form mobs and ruin somebody's career over a comment made 10 years ago?

Traster 6y ago
What I'm saying is that the correct response to those mobs is to ignore them or discuss their points on their merits. What often happens (particularly on HN) is a counter-mob forms that rails against the general idea of cancellation, despite the fact that often there are actually underlying reasons for being aggreived. If someone said something stupid 10 years ago the correct answer isn't for them to be fired, it's for them to apologise. But instead we see one group proclaim "Off with his head" and another group simply counter-mobilize. You see it even in the most extreme scenarios, today on HN we've literally got an article about Harvard closing down something because of it's links to Epstein, and people talking about "cancel culture". There actually are degrees of badness that we need to talk about beyond tagging everything as "cancel culture".
matthewmacleod 6y ago
Because it's a dumbass catchphrase made up to make you outraged and you're buying in to it.
- dang 6y ago
  It looks like you've crossed into using HN primarily for ideological battle. That's one line at which we ban an account—regardless of what side you're battling for or against—because it's not what this site is for and destroys what it is for. I'm not going to ban you right now, but if you would please review https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html and take the intended spirit of this site—thoughtful conversation and intellectual curiosity—more to heart, we'd be grateful. Every user needs to follow the rules and use HN as intended regardless of how wrong others are or how badly they behave. Otherwise we just end up in a downward spiral.