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Not every reaction against entrenched capital is a carbon copy rerun of the Bolshevik takeover.

by _djo_ 4y ago

refurb 4y ago
Look at practically every violent revolution by the lower classes - China, Cambodia, Vietnam. Intellectuals, small business owners, what most countries would call the “middle class” were the enemy. The workers are the people truly suffering. Not getting laid off with a cushy severance package or not being allowed to work from home. While many on HN see themselves as the oppressed working class I can promise you the lower class don’t see it that way at all. Engineers in Silicon Valley are the rich. Sure not billionaires, but far wealthy beyond what the lower classes could ever imagine.
- _djo_ 4y ago
  Really not sure what you're trying to argue here. The workers are the people truly suffering. Not getting laid off with a cushy severance package or not being allowed to work from home. There can be suffering in both, this isn't a competition. Someone on an H1B visa supporting parents and parts of their family getting laid off can really struggle even if they're earning a good wage. So we can have sympathy, and empathy, for both. While many on HN see themselves as the oppressed working class I don't see any evidence of this, on this thread or elsewhere. I'll also note that many, if not most of the engineers posting on HN are not SV engineers, and are not getting the sky high salaries and equity that are common in the Valley. But that aside, again nobody is saying that tech workers are uniquely worse off than anyone, they're saying that the system is rotten for pretty much anyone and that the increasing concentration of capital is a bad thing that'll eventually result in worse outcomes for everyone. Your argument seems to be that because the working class see tech workers as part of the problem that tech workers should treat them as enemies and keep them downtrodden, and do nothing to try to fix the current system.
  - refurb 4y ago
    No, my argument is that for those encouraging revolution, they may want to check which side they'll actually be on.
    - cloudfifty 4y ago

Not every reaction against entrenched capital is a carbon copy rerun of the Bolshevik takeover.

by _djo_ 4y ago

Not every reaction against entrenched capital is a carbon copy rerun of the Bolshevik takeover.

Look at practically every violent revolution by the lower classes - China, Cambodia, Vietnam. Intellectuals, small business owners, what most countries would call the “middle class” were the enemy. The workers are the people truly suffering. Not getting laid off with a cushy severance package or not being allowed to work from home. While many on HN see themselves as the oppressed working class I can promise you the lower class don’t see it that way at all. Engineers in Silicon Valley are the rich. Sure not billionaires, but far wealthy beyond what the lower classes could ever imagine.

_djo_ 4y ago
Really not sure what you're trying to argue here. The workers are the people truly suffering. Not getting laid off with a cushy severance package or not being allowed to work from home. There can be suffering in both, this isn't a competition. Someone on an H1B visa supporting parents and parts of their family getting laid off can really struggle even if they're earning a good wage. So we can have sympathy, and empathy, for both. While many on HN see themselves as the oppressed working class I don't see any evidence of this, on this thread or elsewhere. I'll also note that many, if not most of the engineers posting on HN are not SV engineers, and are not getting the sky high salaries and equity that are common in the Valley. But that aside, again nobody is saying that tech workers are uniquely worse off than anyone, they're saying that the system is rotten for pretty much anyone and that the increasing concentration of capital is a bad thing that'll eventually result in worse outcomes for everyone. Your argument seems to be that because the working class see tech workers as part of the problem that tech workers should treat them as enemies and keep them downtrodden, and do nothing to try to fix the current system.
- refurb 4y ago
  No, my argument is that for those encouraging revolution, they may want to check which side they'll actually be on.
  - cloudfifty 4y ago