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Is this what you do? Go through a website ignoring 99% of it, ignoring all the members including current politicians, technologists, reaearchers, bureaucrats of

by EGreg 3y ago

Is this what you do? Go through a website ignoring 99% of it, ignoring all the members including current politicians, technologists, reaearchers, bureaucrats of major institutions, and searching for the one thing that might — if presented in a weird light and without context - dishonstly paint the entire organization and its members as a bunch of quacks to be disregarded? You really think the Government Blockchain Association is primarily concerned with space and UFOs? If not, why highlight it? One word: strawman! A dishonest way to argue. I know HN members are biased against blockchains but I am always surprised more and more by the methods employed in argument. For a long time I thought HN members would avoid such tactics merely because they disagreed with something.

jncfhnb 3y ago
Well the first thing I did was go to the about page to see who started it, but they don’t list anyone in the section titled “who are we”. I sort of found loose evidence of who might actually involved and not just some random email signup, but it was not helpful. A straw man is an attacking a different argument, not focusing on one particularly noteworthy piece of evidence. Asserting that I’m saying space is their primary concern is, ironically, a straw man argument. Because I’m not saying that. I’m saying that it’s a red flag. An organization focused on financial technology has no reason to be hosting a talk on UFOs. I don’t think their thing is UFOs. But I do think maybe their thing is trying to attract complete fucking morons that think they know better than the rest of society in the vein that “UFOs are aliens” is markedly compatible with “blockchain is the solution society needs”. I actually feel very comfortable writing off any organization as idiots, crazies, or predatory snake oil salesmen for hosting a single event on the presence of aliens among us. I don’t require that to be their whole thing. That’s just a hilariously bright red flag.

by EGreg 3y ago

jncfhnb 3y ago

Well the first thing I did was go to the about page to see who started it, but they don’t list anyone in the section titled “who are we”. I sort of found loose evidence of who might actually involved and not just some random email signup, but it was not helpful. A straw man is an attacking a different argument, not focusing on one particularly noteworthy piece of evidence. Asserting that I’m saying space is their primary concern is, ironically, a straw man argument. Because I’m not saying that. I’m saying that it’s a red flag. An organization focused on financial technology has no reason to be hosting a talk on UFOs. I don’t think their thing is UFOs. But I do think maybe their thing is trying to attract complete fucking morons that think they know better than the rest of society in the vein that “UFOs are aliens” is markedly compatible with “blockchain is the solution society needs”. I actually feel very comfortable writing off any organization as idiots, crazies, or predatory snake oil salesmen for hosting a single event on the presence of aliens among us. I don’t require that to be their whole thing. That’s just a hilariously bright red flag.