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This is one of many obituary posts on HN I've seen a ton of hate and accusations on, along with questions like "why does everyone venerate the dead regardless o
by lowkey_ 5y ago
This is one of many obituary posts on HN I've seen a ton of hate and accusations on, along with questions like "why does everyone venerate the dead regardless of their acts in life?"
Some of us have a different threshold than others for at what point a life is valuable, and the loss of that life tragic.
While there can be a time and place for discussions of the 2003 UN performance, calling someone a war criminal, ragging on our military, and so forth — this is really the absolute last place for you to take out those grievances. There's always plenty of other threads, and you can create your own.
There's an old adage of "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all." I don't generally believe that, and in fact HN's willingness to lay valid and accurate criticism is one of its best qualities, but attached to news of a person's death — a controversial person even — is the last place it belongs.
- bjoli 5y agoI have no real bone in this fight, buf if someone sincerely believe Colin Powell was a war criminal I am not sure I can blame them for expressing it. I have seen war criminals be celebrated after their death, and I found it disgraceful and disgusting. If they indeed are, then they should be remembered as such. I have a couple of people that I wont have the dignity to shut up about when they die, because I want them remembered for the crooks they are.
- marricks 5y agoNo an obituary and discussions of a person’s passing must take into account their failings, especially their greatest ones. Otherwise we will begin to forget those mistakes and be doomed to repeat. In particular the failings that lead up to the Iraq war are common place in US history so every effort must be made to remember and be wary of such mistakes (or lies rather).
- lowkey_ 5y agoThat belongs in the history books, Wikipedia pages, and retrospectives of one's life. History will not repeat itself because you didn't properly and fully disparage a person beneath the news of their passing in a little-known internet news forum.
- marricks 5y agoWould love to hear a why.
- macinjosh 5y agoI'll read a hagiographical obit on colon powel and his ilk as soon as the NYT and CNN start publishing individual obits and special coverage of every single innocent child they killed in the middle east. otherwise i don't care about murderous trash like him, like at all.
- lowkey_ 5y agoThat's exactly the point, putting aside your vitriol! If you don't care, then just don't open the thread or comment on it. Start another thread sometime based on the events you actually want everyone to discuss. Nobody is gaining anything from reading it, and many of us value life, and respect death, to a different degree.
- Frondo 5y agoIt is without vitriol that I can note that Colin Powell had a long and respected career that started with covering up a US military massacre of civilians and ended acting as the mouthpiece for an unjust war in which many more civilians died. He lent an even-toned dignity to horrible injustices and held an esteemed position in the US power structures that led to many innocent lives being ended prematurely. I have no first-hand experience but I'm sure he was also a family man, and he always seemed like a warm and personable individual in interviews, and proud of what he helped the US military do to people overseas. Is this dispassionate and even-handed enough for you?
- tomjen3 5y ago>If you don't care, then just don't open the thread or comment on it We disagree with your stance, which you seem unable to deal with. That is your problem, we will not go away.
- macinjosh 5y ago
- OneTimePetes 5y agoI hope you write the same sentences below every collateral victim, declared a terrorist post-cluster-bomb, to justify the means. To demand decency for the indecent, while not giving the very same to others, that is to declare humans distinct, almost as if one becomes a "real" human only once he joined my tribe. That sentiment has lead to several catastrophes in the past and is banned here.
- tomjen3 5y agoCan you state why you believe that? I have always assumed that you shouldn't speak ill of the dead because their loved ones where likely nearby. If he was a shite in real life, why should we pretend anything else when he is dead?
- rajamaka 5y agoGenuinely curious whether you would have made the same comment of "if you have nothing nice to say, don't say anything at all" on the post of "Osama Bin Laden has died" in 2011.
- gremlinsinc 5y agoOp: Please don't talk bad of Osama, he's dead... let bygones be bygones.... or something like that.