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Ask HN: What are some unpopular opinions here that should not be?
- ggm 4y agoFighting a proxy war with Russia is better than fighting a hot war with either Russia or China. But, the people doing the proxy fighting are really unhappy being used this way.
- tharne 4y agoC'mon man, we all saw the president of Ukraine very vocally and forcefully asking the West for help in the form of advanced weaponry. Back in February, at the outset of the war, the U.S. offered to evacuate President Zelensky. His exact words were, "The fight is here; I need ammunition, not a ride". Nice try though. I'm sure the pro-Russia contingent on HN will throw a few up-votes your way.
- t6jvcereio 4y agoPeople of Ukraine are not being used. They want to fight the invaders and are thankful that some Western nations are helping them. That the same western nations benefit from this is not the cause of their fighting. That cause is Russia.
- ggm 4y agoThe context here is Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, a range of hotspots in the middle east aside from the war with Ukraine, not to mention Afghanistan, and all the places in Africa where the Wagner group are at play. Arming Ukraine was the least thing they could do but also the most. I totally do not mean to invalidate your war.
- ggm 4y agoThe internet might have been a mistake, socially, educationally, politically. I tend to the upsides outweigh, but you have to be very mindful of the downsides.
- systemvoltage 4y ago- Green/Sustainable trend is overrated and doomed. - Corporate ESG sucks. - HR departments have been hijacked by social justice people, mostly women. Subjectivism has taken over objectivism. - Society/Technology has been deteriorating, not accelerating. Despite of what people say about progress in last 50 years. - Anti-capitalism is going to lead to demise of USA and largely the west while APAC has been embracing what worked in the west, i.e. Hypercapitalism that's pulling people out of poverty. - Hard work and pushing yourself to the limit mentally should be encouraged.
- systemvoltage 4y ago> - Corporate ESG sucks. Let me explain. ESG is a way for politicians/administrative-class/elites to force ideology on the public without having to go through the legislative process and gaining public support, thereby bypassing writing laws. Constitution has deliberately made lawmaking process difficult and lengthy, that's a feature, not a bug. Instead, power is exercised through the proxy of corporations. It is anything but democratic. It is totalitarian (even though I agree with some of the ESG initiatives).
- ggm 4y agoThe free market sell off mania needs to end, real soon. We need big government far more than we are prepared to appreciate.
- baremetal 4y ago>The free market sell off mania needs to end, real soon. We need big government far more than we are prepared to appreciate. Translation: I'm not prepared for what is coming.
- ggm 4y agoCan you elaborate please? I'm interested why you think this. Nobody in the UK really thinks free market rail, free market water, free market gas, free market electricity has been a good idea. The overwhelming majority of consumers want renationalisation, its just about for how long really. Scotland, which retained significant state control over infrastructure is faring better.
- baremetal 4y agoi see what is coming. i started producing my own food, water, and energy. i suggest you do likewise. rather than expecting the government to supply all your needs.
- ggm 4y agoMost UX is bunk.
- ggm 4y agoVolume does not replace skill, in programming.
- ggm 4y agoFree speech is overrated, and very misunderstood.
- baremetal 4y ago>Free speech is overrated, and very misunderstood. Maybe your free speech is overrated. But as for the rest of us, it is not.
- ggm 4y agoHmm. Well the OP did say "unpopular" -But, "rest of us" suggests you think I'm in a camp of 1. I assure you a lot of people worldwide accept constraint on their freedom of speech, for social gain. Would I want to have my social credit measured by an app? Nope. Not even close. But, asked about it, most shrug. Plus, the misunderstood bit. I mean I get you know this, but do you think people actually know their 1st amendment rights? Like, its about specific things, not all things, and no, you (nor Trump) do not have an axiomatic right to say anything you like on Twitter, because "freedom of speech" (hint: Twitter is not a commons, or public space, or bound by laws in Congress) Do you think "free speech" is going to save the defendents in the Dominion Voting case, Specifically Fox? Remember, the fine point here is "misunderstood" not "is important" -I think the libel laws may save Fox, but it won't be Free speech, it will be Libel laws. I kind of hope they lose because even if $1b is an over estimate, they trashed a corporate entity for political gain, by lying. Thats really bad. They could do it tomorrow to anyone else. Thats bully pulpit bad.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- muzani 4y agoI think the USA has seen the good side of free speech for a while. Most of the former British colonies see the bad side - riots, deaths, civil wars. The Sunni vs Shia wars and torture in the Middle East. Israel. The race riots in SE Asia. India's Muslim vs Hindu conflicts, as well as Pakistan. You need a minority whose votes are negligible enough. Often those with enough power to be a viable threat (Jews, Chinese billionaires, hardworking educated immigrants). Trump/MAGA is just following the standard politician playbook of vilifying minorities for votes. When it works, future politicians do the same because it's easy and proven. And then the hatred turns to violence. It's not just MAGA, it's also the people who compare Trump to Hitler and compare MAGA to Nazis.
- ggm 4y agoAmerica's rule by Gerontocracy is no better than anyone else's and the electoral college system is a giant shell-game to hide the reality behind "democracy" as practically experienced by most people in the US
- ggm 4y agoUniversities don't need trigger warnings.
- ggm 4y agoScientists should stay in their lanes.
- the_only_law 4y agopretty ironic coming from HN. The home of armchair experts.
- ggm 4y agoYes. It's said to me all the time. And, I try to listen. I think reddit is home, HN is where we hang out pretending to work. We're expert generalists. The people I really have a problem with are the autodidacts. It's very hard to argue with somebody convinced of their genius, when it's never been formally tested, or constructed in a methodology. Staying in lane means asking questions in the other field, make assertions in your own.
- ggm 4y agoOpposing nuclear power was probably a mistake at scale. Now? it's too late to be effectively useful at scale, we can solve the problems via other methods but we've wasted 50 years of the problem by being "too green"
- tharne 4y ago> Opposing nuclear power was probably a mistake at scale Tell that to the folks in Ukraine who now have to worry about one of their plants melting down in addition to everything else they're dealing with. Imagine a conflict on the scale of WWII with developed countries bombing each other day and night. Sooner or later one of those conventional weapons accidentally, or not accidentally, hits a nuclear reactor. Nuclear plants are great in Sim City, they just don't work in the real world.
- ggm 4y agoEurope should have paid more towards NATO, for a long time.
- nonrandomstring 4y agoA strangely misplaced whiff of anti-intellectualism seems present and growing within tech/hacker circles (?)
- t6jvcereio 4y agoString theory is a hoax because "there's no experimental evidence". How about we build bigger and better experiments? No, colliders are just hand outs to the industry and a waste of money /s It's more than a whiff, it's a disgusting stench.
- asdfqwertzxcv 4y agoTech/Hacker culture has a lot of overlap with gamer and meme culture... These are the places where far-right (racist, fascist, and anti-intellectualism) ideologies have been subtly and not-so-subtly introduced. You're now seeing the fruit from the seeds that have been meticulously planted the past 10ish years.
- abernard1 4y agoThe tech community is not only not smarter than most other communities, in many cases tech workers are less capable and intelligent than the average person. Half a century of conformist education and a financial machine around scaling companies has made tech workers soft. And their choice to insulate themselves in specific metros/social circles has made them unable to see this.
- the_only_law 4y agoCome on man you can’t say that one. I need something to feel good about and I attached my entire identity to my career and salary.
- spansoa 4y agoTruth is being obfuscated by making us mentally fatigued and thinking too much about problems which are largely irrelevant. As long as there is bread and circuses, the truth will not reveal itself.
- superchroma 4y agoNot sure this is unpopular per-se.
- georgia_peach 4y agoGod is real y'all.
- smt88 4y agoWhy should this be more popular?
- georgia_peach 4y agoopinions here
- smt88 4y agoI agree that it's unpopular on HN. Why is it undeserving of being unpopular? I'm referring to the second part of OP's question.
- georgia_peach 4y agoState your objection and I will address it.
- the_only_law 4y agoI think they’re asking why you believe more people should believe god is real.
- georgia_peach 4y agoOP asked "What are some unpopular opinions here that should not be?" OP didn't ask for explanations, long or brief. If you want those, that's what we have scripture for. "Which scripture?!" you may ask. I prefer the New Testament. Nearly any scripture is preferable to the modern materialist quantity-cult--even ones outside of the Abrahamic fold.
- georgia_peach 4y ago
- MontyCarloHall 4y agoDocker is an excellent way of distributing modern software, whose increasingly complex dependencies have become unwieldy to manage without containers.
- MontyCarloHall 4y agoAlphaFold will have only a marginal impact on biotechnology research [0]. [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32265319 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32265319
- bediger4000 4y agoLinux really is a good general purpose desktop OS.
- smt88 4y agoSetting aside privacy or software freedom idealism, why would someone use it over Windows or macOS?
- jleyank 4y agoSoftware development, particularly for large-scale computing environments.
- smt88 4y agoI have been writing software for 26 years. The first ~16 I used Linux exclusively, then Linux and Windows, and recently Windows exclusively. There's absolutely nothing I'm unable to do on Windows 10, but there are a lot of things I wasn't able to do on Linux.
- bediger4000 4y agoOddly, I've had pretty much the opposite experience. Windows is so full of quirks. The irregularities keep me from doing things. Each cat his rat I guess.
- the_only_law 4y agoThat doesn’t sound very general purpose.
- georgia_peach 4y agoAfter mastering *nix userland, Windows is suffocating. Not having ads slipstreamed into my start menu, or not having the calculator take 10sec to start due to telemetry, or not having my CPU/HD/RAM hammered by Cortana no matter how many different ways I disabled it, or not having updates+reboots forcing themselves at the absolute worst time, or... The advantage over OSX is commodity hardware: easy upgrades/downgrades/repairs, & lower cost. Swapping HD in my macbook involved ordering special screwdrivers & prybars, then at least 30min worth of disassembly/re-assembly. Last linux/PC upgrade consisted of slapping the old HD into the new PC and powering on--10 minutes max. Aside from that, OSX is nice.
- smt88 4y agoThis is unfortunately full of very popular opinions. This is exactly what happens on reddit.
- the_only_law 4y agoJust hunt for greyed out comments.
- smt88 4y agoDoing that on any thread (and having showdead turned on) tells you exactly what HN dislikes, and it's surprisingly consistent.
- deleted 4y ago[deleted]
- muzani 4y agoI've been upvoting some of the greyed out ones because they seem to actually contribute to the topic. Which ironically makes them non-greyed out and harder to find.
- yongjik 4y agoThe usefulness of armed citizens in preventing/fighting tyranny is greatly exaggerated. Americans would be served better if the second amendment is abolished.
- superchroma 4y agoThe ocean as we know it to be is probably done for. We, as a race, are not even starting to get a handle on all the plastic going in the ocean. It's a ridiculously, stupendously huge thing next to a human, and if you think that for every video of someone rescuing a turtle or documenting a whale that swallowed plastic, there is an entire ocean's worth that aren't being saved or seen, it puts into context the magnitude of what we've done. It's probably a slaughterhouse out there.
- alexmingoia 4y agoSoftware can’t be delivered on time (it can).
- Normille 4y agoStop demanding you be treated absolutely equally to everyone else --whilst, at the same time, also demanding you be recognised as a special snowflake.
- Normille 4y agoI'd have been disappointed if that didn't get downvoted. Kinda proves my point