4 ms·

I'm just a communist programmer that hasn't been here for ages because I got bored of the hive-mind. Literally anything left-of-right-of-centre immediately gets

I'm just a communist programmer that hasn't been here for ages because I got bored of the hive-mind. Literally anything left-of-right-of-centre immediately gets flagged (if not outright banned by the mods), all in service of sheltering little liberal coder worker bees from scary labour propaganda. I came back for a bit to get the latest on ChatGPT, and then noticed that, unsurprisingly, this place is crawling with demented Chinaphobes spreading whatever third-hand hearsay they can find about China. I'm vastly more knowledgeable about this subject than probably everyone here, and have tested my resources against way more capable critics, so sharing some disruptive well-chosen resources here and there isn't too hard. The fact that the average stance here is something like "I'm not a Marxist, I don't like Marxism, I don't actually know much about Marxism, but I do know this: China isn't Marxist" is just hilarious to me.

fortuna86 4y ago
I didn't ask who you claim to be, i'm pointing out what you are. If you actually care what China is, which it appears you don't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarian_capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarian_capitalism
- RedCondor 4y ago
  [flagged]
  - fortuna86 4y ago
    "Your sources are compromised, here's a quote from Fidel Castro and a random blog titled "China Has Billionaires" that doesn't actually talk about China at all, just "US is bad China opposes US therefore..." Self-awareness is not your strong point. And your mix of conspiracy and partisan bile being challenged here is evidence this is a healthy online community, not the opposite. Perhaps you would feel better somewhere that confirms your beliefs instead of (rightly) mocks them.
    - RedCondor 4y ago
      I'm having a lot of fun, actually. But you can keep pretending you know what you're talking about, citing Wikipedia. I guess from your perspective that's fun too.
      - fortuna86 4y ago
        > I'm having a lot of fun, actually. I don't doubt that. Trolling is fun for lots of people.
        RedCondor 4y ago
        Hegelians don't "troll."
        fortuna86 4y ago
        > I didn't ask who you claim to be, i'm pointing out what you are.
        RedCondor 4y ago
        >Since the man of common sense makes his appeal to feeling, to an oracle within his breast, he is finished and done with anyone who does not agree; he only has to explain that he has nothing more to say to anyone who does not find and feel the same in himself. In other words, he tramples underfoot the roots of humanity. For it is in the nature of humanity to press onward to agreement with others; human nature only really exists in an achieved community of minds. Phenomenology of Spirit (Oxford, 1979), p. 43.
        fortuna86 4y ago
        > Self-awareness is not your strong point It's funny how i've said everything I need to say already. You aren't as complicated as you think you are.
  - dang 4y ago
    You've been badly stoking this thread with political and ideological flamewar. We ban accounts that do that. I actually just banned you but then changed my mind (I'll explain that below). Lest anyone think I'm scolding you out of some ideological bias: I've personally spent countless hours defending users who have advocated minority perspectives (including on China), even when they've sometimes broken the site guidelines. That's not because I agree or disagree but because I understand how difficult it is to advocate for a minority view on the internet without getting attacked by mobs—and I don't like mobs. If you or anyone wants examples of how this has played out on China-related topics, I put this list together for a user about a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/chinamod https://news.ycombinator.com/chinamod. So the problem isn't that you're arguing for a minority view—it's that you're doing it with snark and tropes and talking points. From that point of view your comments in this thread have been abusive. It seems clear that you're a seasoned internet flamewarrior with this stuff, because those skills only get honed over many years. For HN, this is a bad sign, because we're really trying for something else here (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Nonetheless I changed my mind about banning you because I think https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35245528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35245528 is a genuinely interesting submission about Nietzsche. Thanks! If you would, however, please calibrate your HN comments to the intended use of the site, we'd really appreciate it. That means no snark, no flamewar, and no disrespect to others (specifically or in general) regardless of how wrong they are or you feel they are. I know lots of people routinely break those rules—I spend my days asking them not to. But we need users, and especially users with formidable internet powers, to resist the temptation to respond in kind. Otherwise we just get a downward spiral and this place will burn to a crisp. No doubt HN is filled with comments that you personally disagree with and find offensive, but that's inevitable given that HN is a majority western community (albeit highly international) and that you hold minority views (within such a population) on provocative topics. I'm not asking you to change your views, but if you would please take care to avoid provoking or being provoked here in the future, we'd be grateful.
dang 4y ago
> Literally anything left-of-right-of-centre immediately gets flagged (if not outright banned by the mods) The other day I heard it was "the non-Maoist stuff that dang & HN mods censor" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35166791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35166791), "when did HN get taken over by commies" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35078024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35078024), and "there are plenty of Marxist-Leninists here" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34344096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34344096). Oh and then there's "Dang is a totalitarian liberal thought policeman", "banned every single prominent right winger", "extremely left-winged", "most people on HN are liberals", "socialist hell-hole", "this site leans left", "leftist bots", "always politically left", "skews quite left", "Obviously this website is rigged for the liberal agenda", "the level of wokeness is just absurd", "leftist ideological echo chamber", "run by radical leftists, so no surprise", and much more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870.
- RedCondor 4y ago
  Someone may get called lots of names from "both the left and the right." It doesn't mean they have, therefore, achieved some kind of enlightened balance. The fact that you can cite a lot of angry right-wingers trying to pull discourse in their direction through whining just means there's a lot of right wingers posting here trying to form critical mass, as one would expect given the composition of America as a country. You don't get more of those kinds of critiques from communists because 1) there's barely any communists here and 2) we don't argue like that. Pretty fair modding, though. GJ.
  - deleted 4y ago
    [deleted]

fortuna86 4y ago

I didn't ask who you claim to be, i'm pointing out what you are. If you actually care what China is, which it appears you don't. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarian_capitalism https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Authoritarian_capitalism

RedCondor 4y ago
[flagged]
- fortuna86 4y ago
  "Your sources are compromised, here's a quote from Fidel Castro and a random blog titled "China Has Billionaires" that doesn't actually talk about China at all, just "US is bad China opposes US therefore..." Self-awareness is not your strong point. And your mix of conspiracy and partisan bile being challenged here is evidence this is a healthy online community, not the opposite. Perhaps you would feel better somewhere that confirms your beliefs instead of (rightly) mocks them.
  - RedCondor 4y ago
    I'm having a lot of fun, actually. But you can keep pretending you know what you're talking about, citing Wikipedia. I guess from your perspective that's fun too.
    - fortuna86 4y ago
      > I'm having a lot of fun, actually. I don't doubt that. Trolling is fun for lots of people.
      - RedCondor 4y ago
        Hegelians don't "troll."
        fortuna86 4y ago
        > I didn't ask who you claim to be, i'm pointing out what you are.
        RedCondor 4y ago
        >Since the man of common sense makes his appeal to feeling, to an oracle within his breast, he is finished and done with anyone who does not agree; he only has to explain that he has nothing more to say to anyone who does not find and feel the same in himself. In other words, he tramples underfoot the roots of humanity. For it is in the nature of humanity to press onward to agreement with others; human nature only really exists in an achieved community of minds. Phenomenology of Spirit (Oxford, 1979), p. 43.
        fortuna86 4y ago
        > Self-awareness is not your strong point It's funny how i've said everything I need to say already. You aren't as complicated as you think you are.
- dang 4y ago
  You've been badly stoking this thread with political and ideological flamewar. We ban accounts that do that. I actually just banned you but then changed my mind (I'll explain that below). Lest anyone think I'm scolding you out of some ideological bias: I've personally spent countless hours defending users who have advocated minority perspectives (including on China), even when they've sometimes broken the site guidelines. That's not because I agree or disagree but because I understand how difficult it is to advocate for a minority view on the internet without getting attacked by mobs—and I don't like mobs. If you or anyone wants examples of how this has played out on China-related topics, I put this list together for a user about a year ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/chinamod https://news.ycombinator.com/chinamod. So the problem isn't that you're arguing for a minority view—it's that you're doing it with snark and tropes and talking points. From that point of view your comments in this thread have been abusive. It seems clear that you're a seasoned internet flamewarrior with this stuff, because those skills only get honed over many years. For HN, this is a bad sign, because we're really trying for something else here (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). Nonetheless I changed my mind about banning you because I think https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35245528 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35245528 is a genuinely interesting submission about Nietzsche. Thanks! If you would, however, please calibrate your HN comments to the intended use of the site, we'd really appreciate it. That means no snark, no flamewar, and no disrespect to others (specifically or in general) regardless of how wrong they are or you feel they are. I know lots of people routinely break those rules—I spend my days asking them not to. But we need users, and especially users with formidable internet powers, to resist the temptation to respond in kind. Otherwise we just get a downward spiral and this place will burn to a crisp. No doubt HN is filled with comments that you personally disagree with and find offensive, but that's inevitable given that HN is a majority western community (albeit highly international) and that you hold minority views (within such a population) on provocative topics. I'm not asking you to change your views, but if you would please take care to avoid provoking or being provoked here in the future, we'd be grateful.

dang 4y ago

> Literally anything left-of-right-of-centre immediately gets flagged (if not outright banned by the mods) The other day I heard it was "the non-Maoist stuff that dang & HN mods censor" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35166791 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35166791), "when did HN get taken over by commies" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35078024 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35078024), and "there are plenty of Marxist-Leninists here" (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34344096 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=34344096). Oh and then there's "Dang is a totalitarian liberal thought policeman", "banned every single prominent right winger", "extremely left-winged", "most people on HN are liberals", "socialist hell-hole", "this site leans left", "leftist bots", "always politically left", "skews quite left", "Obviously this website is rigged for the liberal agenda", "the level of wokeness is just absurd", "leftist ideological echo chamber", "run by radical leftists, so no surprise", and much more: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26148870.

RedCondor 4y ago
Someone may get called lots of names from "both the left and the right." It doesn't mean they have, therefore, achieved some kind of enlightened balance. The fact that you can cite a lot of angry right-wingers trying to pull discourse in their direction through whining just means there's a lot of right wingers posting here trying to form critical mass, as one would expect given the composition of America as a country. You don't get more of those kinds of critiques from communists because 1) there's barely any communists here and 2) we don't argue like that. Pretty fair modding, though. GJ.
- deleted 4y ago
  [deleted]