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Political? The most political I've seen him get was when he spoke out against the idea of accepting technical compromises for the sake of not hurting people's f

• kryptiskt 11mo ago
  He's an anti-vaxxer.
• simonask 11mo ago
  I just wonder how readily people would defend this viewpoint if they belonged to any of those groups whose "feelings" are typically being "hurt". I don't know about you, but there does not exist any amount of technical achievement that will make me brush off sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or anything else. If you are going to be disrespectful to me or people I care about, we cannot work together, period. By "political correctness" people often mean "the basic requirement to treat your fellow humans respectfully", and that's an incredibly low bar.
  • jabbywocker 11mo ago
    Don’t follow him much but do you got any links discussing Blow being sexist, racist, homophobic, and transphobic?
    • jna_sh 11mo ago
      The second paragraph of the linked article?
      • armitron 11mo ago
        [flagged]
        • perching_aix 11mo ago
          > a basic biological fact > looks inside > opinion He literally tells you that it's his bellyfeel: "I believe it is likely that (...)". Come on...
          • armitron 11mo ago
            [flagged]
            • fnimick 11mo ago
              It's a "biological fact" that women are less interested in technology?
            • ookdatnog 11mo ago
              > one that every practicing biologist would agree with Where are you getting this from? As far as I'm aware biologists, practicing or not, are not particularly concerned with the study of human behavior.
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            • djeastm 11mo ago
              >the same opinion being an uncontroversial fact in biology, I'm confused is it opinion or fact? Can't be both, can it?
      • jabbywocker 11mo ago
        The Reddit link didn’t load for some reason and the other day be didn’t include anything racist, homophobic or transphobic. What it did cover is definitely a simplistic view ignoring the cultural nuances that might lower women’s participation in stem, but I’m not sure I’d classify it as sexist.
        • IAmBroom 11mo ago
          He suggests women are biologically less capable than men in STEM. But I note you didn't include misogyny as a problematic belief.
          • miltonlost 11mo ago
            I wonder what his take on the differences of IQ among races are. Bet it's also as "enlightening"
          • jabbywocker 11mo ago
            Maybe I read it wrong but I took it as him saying women are “naturally” less interested in STEM not that they are less capable in the area. And I’d say that misogyny falls under “sexist” in the list of problematic stuff
          • psyopsy 11mo ago
            [flagged]
    • uragur27754 11mo ago
      This provides a good summary of the drama that he cultivates: https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/s/aB0aOJ5cas https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/s/aB0aOJ5cas
      • magicalist 11mo ago
        Clicking on a random link: > It doesn't help that all males currently under the age of 40 were raised to be supercucks https://x.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/1854708962462982465 https://x.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/1854708962462982465 Dear lord, yeah, this is why I completely tuned him out years ago. Somewhat ironically it's the Blow fans in this thread that are cherry picking his comments. He's way too online so says things like this all the time, and it's the fans that are in here demanding a smoking gun comment that somehow proves he's awful rather than telling him "sometimes it's ok to stfu" to comments like this that enable and echo chamber him. And I say this as a fan of Braid and The Witness (at least of the first couple of layers of puzzles...as you go deeper, just like with Braid, you find more and more self-indulgent windbaggery that should have been on the cutting room floor).
        • DonHopkins 11mo ago
          Game Helpin' Squad totally takes the piss out of Braid's self-indulgent windbaggery in this review of "Time Travel Understander": https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fABGyVzVwI https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fABGyVzVwI
      • bena 11mo ago
        This comment is pretty much the entire discussion whittled down to its essence. https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1jh275b/over_the_course_of_an_entire_year_rthewitness/mj87w2j/ https://www.reddit.com/r/SubredditDrama/comments/1jh275b/ove...
      • CupricTea 11mo ago
        Wow, what a nauseating subreddit. They are notorious for poisoning the well, bad faith cherrypicking to misrepresent positions, and blowing their positions completely out of proportion, all for the sole effort of smearing whoever or whatever they make a topic about. And everything in that post are bad faith links to secondary reactionary sources. I don't really know much about Jonathan Blow or Jai or really follow it but it's astonishing to me that anyone could possibly take anything from that toxic subreddit with any sort of seriousness.
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  • Levitz 11mo ago
    >By "political correctness" people often mean "the basic requirement to treat your fellow humans respectfully", and that's an incredibly low bar. I've gotta disagree. By "political correctness" people generally mean to not saying or doing anything that could be perceived as offensive. Especially against collectives perceived to be vulnerable. For example, in the tiny paragraph above I've absolutely respected my fellow humans, but it can be considered offensive because you can suppose I might be looking to justify prejudiced attitudes. For an even more evident example, political correctness has to do with the political climate and identity (as you mention: sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, or anything else, as well as referring to "those groups"). That is very much detached from treating fellow humans respectfully.
• valiant55 11mo ago
  One example is linked in the article where he expressed women are biologically less interested in tech.
  • contrarian1234 11mo ago
    [flagged]
    • harperlee 11mo ago
      Whether one is allowed to pose some particular questions is a political topic though!
      • magicalist 11mo ago
        > Whether one is allowed to pose some particular questions is a political topic though! "This is *NOT REMOTELY* a controversial opinion except on Weird Far Left Twitter 2017" doesn't sound like a question.
      • contrarian1234 11mo ago
        curious what you mean. i dont actually take any side on the original question. i dont really know enough to have an informed opinion - and im a bit skeptical one could prove anything given the confounding variables but the idea that you cant even a-politically pose a question about biology - i dont really get the logic there. seems antiscientific
        • harperlee 11mo ago
          I was just speaking generally, I also don't have a side there. But for clarity, what I meant is that templates to the tune of "[subset of people with X characteristic] are more / less prone to [Y characteristic]" can construct blatantly false sentences, and also sentences that, irrespective of whether they are true (or that they are falsifiable at all, as you add), have a heavy political penalty. I also don't think that's bad - you can say blatantly racist things with that template, and I'm ok with those things not allowed to be said in lots of contexts.
• hian 11mo ago
  He streams on Twitch and often talks about politics. He's a big Trump fan for example.
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  • pandemic_region 11mo ago
    Wait what really a Trump fan? Is this the same Jonathan Blow who did a talk about Preventing the Collapse of Civilization? https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=ZSRHeXYDLko
    • rufo 11mo ago
      https://x.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/1939982295936782396 https://x.com/Jonathan_Blow/status/1939982295936782396 > Trump was my preferred President in the last election cycle but nothing will make me hate him faster than this banana republic shit. (replying to a post complaining on the direction of government contracts/subsidies under the Trump administration)
      • socalgal2 11mo ago
        That particular tweet only says that he preferred Trump to Kamala which IMO is a reasonable opinion. It does not say that he likes Trump. Given the choice between a douche and a turd sandwich you pick one. Maybe post some other tweet?
        • rufo 11mo ago
          https://x.com/jonathan_blow/status/1887599339037663629?s=46&t=ru0YRriUgeElneOjd63tRQ https://x.com/jonathan_blow/status/1887599339037663629?s=46&... > Are you kidding? He is the best President we have had in my entire life, by far. It's a miracle. I just hope it doesn't abruptly go bad. (In reply to a post ruing Trump’s “showmanship” and wishing that the Republican Party had produced a “legit” candidate.)
        • 11mo ago
• thrance 11mo ago
  I've seen some weird takes of his around COVID.
• WhyOhWhyQ 11mo ago
  Jonathan Blow is one of my personal heroes, but he does seem to be living 5 years behind politically (he spends a lot of time ranting at the woke crowd, who seem nowhere to be found anymore anyways). That's probably a good thing. I doubt he's as addicted to the internet as the rest of us. He's said some odd things in interviews in the last couple years though. I wanted to substantiate this, but I couldn't find the clips (which do exist... I just want to get on with programming and close hn for the day.. not succeeding). I did find that Jonathan Blow tweeted "Nature is healing" after Trump won, so you can get an idea for where his politics are from that. (Still love the guy, even if politically he's your angry uncle.)
  • DashAnimal 11mo ago
    He is definitely "online". I saw him tweet about Hasan's dog which - you have to know about streaming political figures and the latest happenings at least a little bit. Maybe not addicted but he knows what is up and still has the views he has.
    • WhyOhWhyQ 11mo ago
      I wonder how people are able to stay functional while being online. I'm in 2 states. (1) Very productive and joyful. (2) Extreme dysfunctional and commenting on HN and Reddit.
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• dagmx 11mo ago
  Just a comment, that often when people say things that are within your own political belief system, that people often don’t consider them political. But what is neutral to someone is not inherently neutral to others. Or even if it’s neutral to them, it’s still a form of political expression.
  • sergiotapia 11mo ago
    >But what is neutral to someone is not inherently neutral to others. That is 2021 mentality, and the world is over it.
  • nothrabannosir 11mo ago
    Sure, on the other hand sometimes people take a with-us-or-against-us position, and trying to remain neutral means you have become political. I don’t know which of the two happened here, maybe both, but if we’re mentioning one let’s also mention the other. Edit: just read some tweets and I think I know which one it is XD you were underselling it.
  • GoatInGrey 11mo ago
    Do people really believe that opinions on interpersonal communication count as politics now? I'm asking sincerely.
    • whattheheckheck 11mo ago
      How is it not? Respect and how youre trying to influence someone to behave is exerting power. Telling someone how they should exert their power is political.
    • thrance 11mo ago
      That's not what people are talking about when they're speaking of Jon Blow's politics. Most likely they are referring to his weird takes on COVID or his MAGA tweets.
  • torginus 11mo ago
    I think an important distinction has to be made between personal values and opinions, and politics, both in the confines of this discussion and generally in society. I think the lack of this distinction has led to much, and very painful and bitter online discussion, whereas people in a tribalist political mindset try to pigeonhole others based on a throwaway statement into either a friendly or enemy camp. I broadly agree with the value that competence is more important in politeness or vibes, especially in people who build critical infrastructure - in fact it is a very very welcome property of these people that they care about things on a level that seems unreasonable to me. This is true basically of everything critically important in life. One example is security. Everyone enjoys the privilege of using a web browser to visit any website and not have their PC compromised thanks to a variety of measures created by people who care intensely about these things. If the crash testing on my car was done by people who sought out some amicable middle ground so as to not upset engineers who have to redo the frame of the car after a test gone horribly wrong, and accounting, who gets the bill for it, I would be sweating bullets every time I had to drive anywhere. Politics imo is the worst sort of tribalism - the idea that people must be sorted into totally disjunct groups who are the bitter enemies of each other - thankfully doesn't translate into practice. Two people might root for sports teams that are eternal rivals, one person's favorite food might be hated by the other, they might disagree on what the important issues are, or what should be done about them, but thankfully that doesn't necessarily stop them from being the best of friends. That's why there's a blanket ban on discussing politics in every place where people are expected to maintain amicable civility towards each other - family dinners, the workplace, gatherings with friends and acquaintances etc., with everyone usually getting antsy whenever 'politics' is brought up.
• fzeroracer 11mo ago
  If you haven't seen much of his posts or opinions in the past five years maybe, but he's gone pretty far off the deep end recently (see: calling all men under the age of 40 supercucks). He's always been sort of a holier-than-thou asshole and that's driven him to increasingly dumb arguments.
• henning 11mo ago
  He explicitly endorsed JD Vance in a past stream. Buying his games directly fuels authoritarianism.
• biophysboy 11mo ago
  He gets political.. Just as an example, he claimed that it was obvious that COVID was a lab leak in 2021. This is not obvious at all if you read Michael Worobey's rigorous work instead of rely on Blow's arrogant intuitions. I will still play Jonathan Blow's next game, but I think he is a bit of a hack outside of game design.
  • bitexploder 11mo ago
    Most of us are grossly unqualified to provide opinions on any domain save some hyper specialized domain we invest years of effort into. I always think about that when reading comments on the Internet :)
    • biophysboy 11mo ago
      absolutely agree on this. Expertise is essential because it means familiarity w/ the domain methodology, not because you have a certificate
    • thrance 11mo ago
      If only the tech gurus of the internet stayed in their lanes, or if people knew better than to take their beliefs from clueless entrepreneurs who got lucky once, the world would be a much better place. Alas, tis not the one we live in.
      • bitexploder 11mo ago
        A lot of skills in say, running a business, really do transfer. It is possible to gain expertise on how to run a small business and translate that to other realms of running a business. But it is also important, perhaps critical, to recognize limitations. The less similar the situation and environment the less that will transfer. Some times enough transfers that the insights are useful. Some times it is actively harmful to apply previous approaches. Recognizing the differences and what transfers is much harder but also a skill. Becoming skilled enough to help up until your limitations is how you can continuously be successful in domains you have no right to be. The irony is even then you may still not really be able to offer helpful insight.
• dismalaf 11mo ago
  [flagged]
• barbazoo 11mo ago
  I don’t know any of the context but how could hurting people’s feelings ever be relevant in the context of technical implementation of the game if that’s what we’re taking about?
• mrgoldenbrown 11mo ago
  He's a Trump fan. Is he stupid enough to believe Trump's illogical promises, or does he see through them and is OK with all the unconstitutional and immoral crap he's done? Either way he's political.