5 ms·

The other day on here, I likened this to taking a bunch of steps toward a cliff, then jumping off, and then asking "what can I do to stop this?!" We're in the

The other day on here, I likened this to taking a bunch of steps toward a cliff, then jumping off, and then asking "what can I do to stop this?!" We're in the "free-fall" portion now. All we can do is wait and see how far we fall before striking the ground. The time to stop it was during any of the steps we took toward the cliff's edge.

kelseyfrog 2y ago
I was specifically told that I was being dramatic and that it was all rhetoric and that it could never happen here. What gives?
- gryfft 2y ago
  What gives is that many of those saying those things to you were arguing in bad faith to waste your time and attention. Now their team has won and they get to kill all the bad guys in peace.
- dfxm12 2y ago
  it was all rhetoric and that it could never happen here I hear this a lot. It's fascinating when you consider how many people claimed to have voted for Trump because he is a liar.
  - matwood 2y ago
    > It's fascinating when you consider how many people claimed to have voted for Trump because he is a liar. It's wild. I have no idea if he meant to do this, but by being a known liar it let supporters pick and chose what to agree with.
- stego-tech 2y ago
  Because - speaking from a lot of experience, both personally and professionally - human beings hate bad news. They reject the wet blankets, the naysayers, the doomers, the party poopers...you get the idea. I mean, the fact we have so many metaphors for the act of being the person giving a group bad news, should tell you how poorly humans look on it. Humans want to believe the sun will rise tomorrow, the birds will sing, the lines will go up, and everything will be fine (or better) than it was yesterday. This attitude is especially prominent in tech. There's a very real desire to immediately replace whatever was old with whatever is new, regardless of utility or viability. We're participants in (or supporters of) a system of startup-expansion-acquisition-repeat that only focuses on building something new that has a perceived valuation, not something that's actually beneficial. There's no attitude to look back or be objective, because tomorrow will just be better anyway. So when your business leaders, capital investors, regulators, engineers, and developers are all "high on their own supply" of new > old and complex > simple, that attitude seeps out into other aspects of society as a whole. Nobody likes naysayers who are right. It's just our curse, I guess.
  - anal_reactor 2y ago
    > I mean, the fact we have so many metaphors for the act of being the person giving a group bad news, should tell you how poorly humans look on it. Who told you this? Because science shows again and again that humans respond stronger to negative stimuli than positive. This is also why media is mostly filled with bad news, and "good news only channels" always fail. BTW we have so many words for people who bring bad news unnecessarily exactly because people overreact to bad news, and quite often it reaches comical proportions, and needs to be called out. Like the guy who shows up at a party just to tell everyone that every beer shortens the lifespan for one minute. And even if what you say is true, think about it: this is a mechanism that has somehow evolved across all cultures independently. Either this, or it is a biological atittude, predating the idea of "culture". Therefore, it's not a stretch to assume that it has its purpose, and "people doing whatever they have been doing for thousands of years" is NOT a reason to panic.
    - johnnyanmac 2y ago
      >science shows again and again that humans respond stronger to negative stimuli than positive. just because we respond more doesn't mean we like it more. they only trust the fear instillled on them by whatever authority they worship. They will dismiss it from peer and even family. That's one factor in why the nuclear family is shredding apart as a concept.
      - anal_reactor 2y ago
        > they only trust the fear instillled on them by whatever authority they worship Of course they do. Imagine walking down the street, seeing a homeless guy on drugs yelling that the end is coming, and being shit scared that the end is truly coming.
        johnnyanmac 2y ago
        Yes. But again, this authority is "people they see on TV" over their trusted family and friends (who I assume, aren't homeless doomees. I hope). That's just such an inverse of the human element.
- bananapub 2y ago
  [flagged]
  - deleted 2y ago
    [deleted]
  - kelseyfrog 2y ago
    brave of you to log on, survey the smoldering corpse of the republic, and tell someone to grow up. when your descendants claw through the ruins of the fallen world, hunting for the name of a single righteous soul, they’ll find your comment and say: this... this was our Cicero.
- Dagonfly 2y ago
  Just in case you haven't read it, I can recommend this excerpt from "They Thought They Were Free." [1] It describes this exact feeling of "maybe I'm just being dramatic" during the rise of the Nazis. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973 As someone who grew up next to a former concentration camp, the main takeaway when talking to survivors was: If you give the benefit of the doubt, you won't believe fascism has taken over until it's too late. You should talk to your friends and close ones and draw a line somewhere. Maybe it's once a US citizen gets send to El Salvador. Just something to agree on. Once this happens normal is over and we need to act. And organize locally don't stay on your own during these times. I hope the best for the US.

kelseyfrog 2y ago

I was specifically told that I was being dramatic and that it was all rhetoric and that it could never happen here. What gives?

gryfft 2y ago
What gives is that many of those saying those things to you were arguing in bad faith to waste your time and attention. Now their team has won and they get to kill all the bad guys in peace.
dfxm12 2y ago
it was all rhetoric and that it could never happen here I hear this a lot. It's fascinating when you consider how many people claimed to have voted for Trump because he is a liar.
- matwood 2y ago
  > It's fascinating when you consider how many people claimed to have voted for Trump because he is a liar. It's wild. I have no idea if he meant to do this, but by being a known liar it let supporters pick and chose what to agree with.
stego-tech 2y ago
Because - speaking from a lot of experience, both personally and professionally - human beings hate bad news. They reject the wet blankets, the naysayers, the doomers, the party poopers...you get the idea. I mean, the fact we have so many metaphors for the act of being the person giving a group bad news, should tell you how poorly humans look on it. Humans want to believe the sun will rise tomorrow, the birds will sing, the lines will go up, and everything will be fine (or better) than it was yesterday. This attitude is especially prominent in tech. There's a very real desire to immediately replace whatever was old with whatever is new, regardless of utility or viability. We're participants in (or supporters of) a system of startup-expansion-acquisition-repeat that only focuses on building something new that has a perceived valuation, not something that's actually beneficial. There's no attitude to look back or be objective, because tomorrow will just be better anyway. So when your business leaders, capital investors, regulators, engineers, and developers are all "high on their own supply" of new > old and complex > simple, that attitude seeps out into other aspects of society as a whole. Nobody likes naysayers who are right. It's just our curse, I guess.
- anal_reactor 2y ago
  > I mean, the fact we have so many metaphors for the act of being the person giving a group bad news, should tell you how poorly humans look on it. Who told you this? Because science shows again and again that humans respond stronger to negative stimuli than positive. This is also why media is mostly filled with bad news, and "good news only channels" always fail. BTW we have so many words for people who bring bad news unnecessarily exactly because people overreact to bad news, and quite often it reaches comical proportions, and needs to be called out. Like the guy who shows up at a party just to tell everyone that every beer shortens the lifespan for one minute. And even if what you say is true, think about it: this is a mechanism that has somehow evolved across all cultures independently. Either this, or it is a biological atittude, predating the idea of "culture". Therefore, it's not a stretch to assume that it has its purpose, and "people doing whatever they have been doing for thousands of years" is NOT a reason to panic.
  - johnnyanmac 2y ago
    >science shows again and again that humans respond stronger to negative stimuli than positive. just because we respond more doesn't mean we like it more. they only trust the fear instillled on them by whatever authority they worship. They will dismiss it from peer and even family. That's one factor in why the nuclear family is shredding apart as a concept.
    - anal_reactor 2y ago
      > they only trust the fear instillled on them by whatever authority they worship Of course they do. Imagine walking down the street, seeing a homeless guy on drugs yelling that the end is coming, and being shit scared that the end is truly coming.
      - johnnyanmac 2y ago
        Yes. But again, this authority is "people they see on TV" over their trusted family and friends (who I assume, aren't homeless doomees. I hope). That's just such an inverse of the human element.
bananapub 2y ago
[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago
  [deleted]
- kelseyfrog 2y ago
  brave of you to log on, survey the smoldering corpse of the republic, and tell someone to grow up. when your descendants claw through the ruins of the fallen world, hunting for the name of a single righteous soul, they’ll find your comment and say: this... this was our Cicero.
Dagonfly 2y ago
Just in case you haven't read it, I can recommend this excerpt from "They Thought They Were Free." [1] It describes this exact feeling of "maybe I'm just being dramatic" during the rise of the Nazis. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42943973 As someone who grew up next to a former concentration camp, the main takeaway when talking to survivors was: If you give the benefit of the doubt, you won't believe fascism has taken over until it's too late. You should talk to your friends and close ones and draw a line somewhere. Maybe it's once a US citizen gets send to El Salvador. Just something to agree on. Once this happens normal is over and we need to act. And organize locally don't stay on your own during these times. I hope the best for the US.