4 ms·

+1 from a 3rd world immigrant. I’ve been visiting these parts of the internet ever since PG started writing his essays. There is marked shift in the attitudes

+1 from a 3rd world immigrant. I’ve been visiting these parts of the internet ever since PG started writing his essays. There is marked shift in the attitudes here, from celebrating success to hating it. This is of course not limited to SFBA. The phenomenon has been, and continues to be, endlessly analyzed by journalists, culture critics and social scientists. A common theme is that of decadence, that only a society as rich as the US can begin to afford to hate itself.

yzombinator 5y ago
Poorer societies can hate themselves for being corrupt. I don't think this is a rich game. I guess it's harder to understand the reasons for rich societies.
MathYouF 5y ago
Or perhaps only a society rich as rich as the U.S. can begin to question if total economic output is a noble metric that our brightest and ablest minds ought to strive for or be awarded public accolade for. Perhaps it's only in disfunctional societies, possibly ones who've seen a lot of harm from communistic rhetoric, that they think in simple terms that those making a larger pie are still morally better than those who shrink the pie in the name of equality or morality. Perhaps that dichotomy isn't as relevant in the U.S., where the pie is already large and many further methods of expanding it don't actually benefit society and the metric of assuming those with a large slice must've also expanded the total size of the societal pie isn't holding up to scrutiny. My critique of your your critique aside, I agree that I don't personally feel under the thumb of billionaire oligarchs, though they clearly do unduly influence our legislative process to benefit themselves to a higher degree (corruption) than in Northern and Western European nations which we comapre ourselves to in terms of degree of liberty.
TrispusAttucks 5y ago
Pay no attention to the troll army mercenaries [1] that have infected the us web to sow discord in it's people. There is a silent majority that still hopes for and celebrates the success of ambitious fellow patriots. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_web_brigades https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_web_brigades

yzombinator 5y ago

Poorer societies can hate themselves for being corrupt. I don't think this is a rich game. I guess it's harder to understand the reasons for rich societies.

MathYouF 5y ago

Or perhaps only a society rich as rich as the U.S. can begin to question if total economic output is a noble metric that our brightest and ablest minds ought to strive for or be awarded public accolade for. Perhaps it's only in disfunctional societies, possibly ones who've seen a lot of harm from communistic rhetoric, that they think in simple terms that those making a larger pie are still morally better than those who shrink the pie in the name of equality or morality. Perhaps that dichotomy isn't as relevant in the U.S., where the pie is already large and many further methods of expanding it don't actually benefit society and the metric of assuming those with a large slice must've also expanded the total size of the societal pie isn't holding up to scrutiny. My critique of your your critique aside, I agree that I don't personally feel under the thumb of billionaire oligarchs, though they clearly do unduly influence our legislative process to benefit themselves to a higher degree (corruption) than in Northern and Western European nations which we comapre ourselves to in terms of degree of liberty.

TrispusAttucks 5y ago

Pay no attention to the troll army mercenaries [1] that have infected the us web to sow discord in it's people. There is a silent majority that still hopes for and celebrates the success of ambitious fellow patriots. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_web_brigades https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Russian_web_brigades