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This wasn't just some random prisoner. This was a highly educated pioneer who studied in the West and was recruited in the West but chose to go help his countr

by mc32 5y ago

This wasn't just some random prisoner. This was a highly educated pioneer who studied in the West and was recruited in the West but chose to go help his country and was initially rewarded with a very prestigious and secure job and also deserved --to then get caught up in the hong weibing purges. This is the lesson of ideology -it goes astray fast. Lukily for him, he didn't end up beaten to a pulp and dead in a semi anonymous lynching[1] in a no-name square. [1]https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/mao-little-general-horror-cultural-revolution https://www.theguardian.com/world/2016/may/07/mao-little-gen...

dang 5y ago
Please don't take HN threads on generic ideological tangents. All that does is replace an interesting, specific, fresh topic with a shallow, predictable and boring one. I don't mean that it isn't exciting, but something can be both exciting, in the sense that it excites strong feelings, and boring, in the sense that it doesn't contain any new information. Rhetoric like "beaten to a pulp and dead in a semi anonymous lynching in a no-name square" is an excellent example of what I mean: it's highly exciting and at the same time not intellectually interesting. The larger generic topics are like black holes that suck in inquisitive spaceships (us!) that happen to veer nearby (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20black%20hole%20-pigment&sort=byDate&type=story&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). It takes a certain awareness to remember this, so that we can stick to more interesting conversation. Certainly the discovery of how to mechanize the processing of Chinese characters is much more interesting than "the lesson of ideology"—at least in HN's sense of the word "interesting". That's why we have this rule in the site guidelines. If you'd please review them, we'd appreciate it: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=generic%20ideolog%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor....
- mc32 5y ago
  I understand, but I will respectfully disagree. These events occurred during the Cultural Revolution and the article prefaces it with such. It's inextricable. It is true he was an innovator, no doubt, but for the politics at the time, many other minds would have been able to contribute to the progress of the country but were not "as lucky".
  - dang 5y ago
    Ok, I can see the argument that I read it too generically and am happy to retreat this time. Thanks for the kind reply!
- 6543ger23 5y ago
  mc32's comment was informational and worth reading and the reference to the cultural revolution was IMHO very relevant because the guy lactually ived through it when he might very well not have. It comes across as a statement of fact to me, not at all a generic ideological tangent. The cultural revolution is a mystery to me just as much as anything else on HN, perhaps more so because it was about people, which are more complex and interesting than tech. The link to the article was useful.
- jrochkind1 5y ago
  Agree with other dissenters here that this was not a "generic ideological tangent", it was specific and relevant to the OP. And i found it interesting. I also understand it's difficult to keep a comment on politics, even when it's not a "generic ideological tangent", from prompting a mess, and respect your inteventions to avoid the messes. But this was not a generic tangent.
  - dang 5y ago
    Ok, you guys, I'll take the point and back off on this one. Thanks for the feedback!
    - jrochkind1 5y ago
      ♥ Now watch it turn into a political flamewar and prove you right haha. I mean, you do generally know what you're doing. It was just the template "generic ideological tangent" that got me going, it wasn't at all generic or a tangent... it still might result in a mess though! We'll see!

by mc32 5y ago

dang 5y ago

Please don't take HN threads on generic ideological tangents. All that does is replace an interesting, specific, fresh topic with a shallow, predictable and boring one. I don't mean that it isn't exciting, but something can be both exciting, in the sense that it excites strong feelings, and boring, in the sense that it doesn't contain any new information. Rhetoric like "beaten to a pulp and dead in a semi anonymous lynching in a no-name square" is an excellent example of what I mean: it's highly exciting and at the same time not intellectually interesting. The larger generic topics are like black holes that suck in inquisitive spaceships (us!) that happen to veer nearby (https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&query=by%3Adang%20black%20hole%20-pigment&sort=byDate&type=story&type=comment https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...). It takes a certain awareness to remember this, so that we can stick to more interesting conversation. Certainly the discovery of how to mechanize the processing of Chinese characters is much more interesting than "the lesson of ideology"—at least in HN's sense of the word "interesting". That's why we have this rule in the site guidelines. If you'd please review them, we'd appreciate it: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html. Past explanations: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=generic%20ideolog%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor....

mc32 5y ago
I understand, but I will respectfully disagree. These events occurred during the Cultural Revolution and the article prefaces it with such. It's inextricable. It is true he was an innovator, no doubt, but for the politics at the time, many other minds would have been able to contribute to the progress of the country but were not "as lucky".
- dang 5y ago
  Ok, I can see the argument that I read it too generically and am happy to retreat this time. Thanks for the kind reply!
6543ger23 5y ago
mc32's comment was informational and worth reading and the reference to the cultural revolution was IMHO very relevant because the guy lactually ived through it when he might very well not have. It comes across as a statement of fact to me, not at all a generic ideological tangent. The cultural revolution is a mystery to me just as much as anything else on HN, perhaps more so because it was about people, which are more complex and interesting than tech. The link to the article was useful.
jrochkind1 5y ago
Agree with other dissenters here that this was not a "generic ideological tangent", it was specific and relevant to the OP. And i found it interesting. I also understand it's difficult to keep a comment on politics, even when it's not a "generic ideological tangent", from prompting a mess, and respect your inteventions to avoid the messes. But this was not a generic tangent.
- dang 5y ago
  Ok, you guys, I'll take the point and back off on this one. Thanks for the feedback!
  - jrochkind1 5y ago
    ♥ Now watch it turn into a political flamewar and prove you right haha. I mean, you do generally know what you're doing. It was just the template "generic ideological tangent" that got me going, it wasn't at all generic or a tangent... it still might result in a mess though! We'll see!