5 ms·

Would this essay be on the HN frontpage if it was written by anyone else?

by pavlov 2y ago

paulpauper 2y ago
It would but not for long . politics stuff tends to get flagged fast .
- bbzealot 2y ago
  Not if they're from PG apparently
redundantly 2y ago
No. Stuff like this benefits those behind HN and many who frequent this site. The political-neutral face HN puts on is a farce.
- pavlov 2y ago
  Did pg really think through the timing of this essay? Whether his intention or not, releasing this right now feels like it's part of a concerted effort by the SV ultra-rich to convince their fans that Trump Is Good Actually.
  - diggan 2y ago
    > concerted effort by the SV ultra-rich to convince their fans that Trump Is Good Actually If that was his intention, wouldn't he make an article calling for the end of wokeness and everything related to it? Instead of saying something that can be summed up as "There are bad parts of wokeness, and there are some good parts"
    - dowager_dan99 2y ago
      your summary sounds an awful lot like a "good people on both sides" variation...
      - prewett 2y ago
        That's sure a lot better variation than "those Other people are just Bad" that seems to be current on both the left and the right currently.
- dowager_dan99 2y ago
  I'd like to think "no", but we've debated a lot of dumb shit written by famous-in-some-circles people over the years. I'd also push back on HN ever having been politically neutral. I think 20 years ago it was "politically naive" or "politically ignorant", but that's not the same thing.
5cott0 2y ago
>Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
minimaxir 2y ago
This is a rare case where the author and their position makes the content more important than the content itself.
causal 2y ago
No. And man, I feel like the quality of PG's essays have declined. Even if I agreed with a few points, it was so rambling, and just made so many leaps. The sheer length of it is a pretty good signal he didn't really work that hard on this.
lbrito 2y ago
No.
e_y_ 2y ago
Sometimes it's good to know where people stand when they're shooting themselves in the foot.
- dowager_dan99 2y ago
  ...especially because this class of society is often standing on the backs of others!
themaninthedark 2y ago
There was an essay by Ken Shirriff on the front page earlier, discussing political stuff but leaning in the opposite direction. It, at time of writing has 271pts vs this with 218pts.
llm_nerd 2y ago
We just had a day-long front page about why we need to feel shameful about using the term "Cargo Cult" because some tribe that positively no one is thinking about when they use the phrase believed a God would deliver cargo if they setup fake radio towers and used bamboo headsets. Some sort of hand wavy "why I am better than all of these fools who don't understand the real details" bit of noise. Colonialism or something. White guilt. When I saw this PG article I wondered if that article inspired it. It is the perfect example of someone walking into something where zero people have ill intentions, and everyone understands exactly what that very useful term means, and telling us all we should stop using it because of their moral eye opening. Aren't we all better people now?
tester756 2y ago
It was already flagged like 8h ago
deleted 2y ago
[deleted]

Would this essay be on the HN frontpage if it was written by anyone else?

by pavlov 2y ago

Would this essay be on the HN frontpage if it was written by anyone else?

paulpauper 2y ago

It would but not for long . politics stuff tends to get flagged fast .

bbzealot 2y ago
Not if they're from PG apparently

redundantly 2y ago

No. Stuff like this benefits those behind HN and many who frequent this site. The political-neutral face HN puts on is a farce.

pavlov 2y ago
Did pg really think through the timing of this essay? Whether his intention or not, releasing this right now feels like it's part of a concerted effort by the SV ultra-rich to convince their fans that Trump Is Good Actually.
- diggan 2y ago
  > concerted effort by the SV ultra-rich to convince their fans that Trump Is Good Actually If that was his intention, wouldn't he make an article calling for the end of wokeness and everything related to it? Instead of saying something that can be summed up as "There are bad parts of wokeness, and there are some good parts"
  - dowager_dan99 2y ago
    your summary sounds an awful lot like a "good people on both sides" variation...
    - prewett 2y ago
      That's sure a lot better variation than "those Other people are just Bad" that seems to be current on both the left and the right currently.
dowager_dan99 2y ago
I'd like to think "no", but we've debated a lot of dumb shit written by famous-in-some-circles people over the years. I'd also push back on HN ever having been politically neutral. I think 20 years ago it was "politically naive" or "politically ignorant", but that's not the same thing.

5cott0 2y ago

>Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

minimaxir 2y ago

This is a rare case where the author and their position makes the content more important than the content itself.

causal 2y ago

No. And man, I feel like the quality of PG's essays have declined. Even if I agreed with a few points, it was so rambling, and just made so many leaps. The sheer length of it is a pretty good signal he didn't really work that hard on this.

lbrito 2y ago

No.

e_y_ 2y ago

Sometimes it's good to know where people stand when they're shooting themselves in the foot.

dowager_dan99 2y ago
...especially because this class of society is often standing on the backs of others!

themaninthedark 2y ago

There was an essay by Ken Shirriff on the front page earlier, discussing political stuff but leaning in the opposite direction. It, at time of writing has 271pts vs this with 218pts.

llm_nerd 2y ago

We just had a day-long front page about why we need to feel shameful about using the term "Cargo Cult" because some tribe that positively no one is thinking about when they use the phrase believed a God would deliver cargo if they setup fake radio towers and used bamboo headsets. Some sort of hand wavy "why I am better than all of these fools who don't understand the real details" bit of noise. Colonialism or something. White guilt. When I saw this PG article I wondered if that article inspired it. It is the perfect example of someone walking into something where zero people have ill intentions, and everyone understands exactly what that very useful term means, and telling us all we should stop using it because of their moral eye opening. Aren't we all better people now?

tester756 2y ago

It was already flagged like 8h ago

deleted 2y ago

[deleted]