4 ms·

It seems to me you think of politics as being the politics of the sensationalist 24 hour news cycle. Sure, that is a mind killer. But I encourage you to take a

It seems to me you think of politics as being the politics of the sensationalist 24 hour news cycle. Sure, that is a mind killer. But I encourage you to take a look at politics as a broader thing. Read some academic, foundational political philosophy works. Politics in its broad sense is inescapable. Better to know it and be an active participant than to leave it up to others.

ACCount37 9mo ago
You start by allowing "politics as a broader thing", flash forward a year, then you notice that at any given time, at least 20% of the frontpage is occupied by people screeching their throats raw with some incendiary hyper-partisan rhetoric. The failure mode is rather obvious, and also extremely hard to avoid in practice.
- jackyinger 9mo ago
  You’ll note I never suggested that hackernews was the forum for this. If that failure mode is inevitable in hackernews culture, what does that say about the quality of the technical & business content?
  - ACCount37 9mo ago
    "If putting rat poison in the burgers would cause people to die, what does this say about the quality of the burgers?" Very little. I've been told most hackers are humans - not machines or some kind of alien species. So I fully expect hackers to have the flaws people tend to do. Partisan politics have a nasty habit of capitalizing on human flaws, and bringing out the worst in people who engage deeply in them. Which, in online communities, can have a self-reinforcing effect.
    - jackyinger 9mo ago
      I’m not talking about partisan politics. Do some reading about political philosophy and you’ll see how terribly shallow partisan politics is, and how deep the foundations of politics are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_philosophy
      - ACCount37 9mo ago
        And yet we are talking about partisan politics. Because it's the lowest common denominator of politics. Because it's the failure mode. You can say "not all politics are actively toxic to human minds" and point at 18th century philosophical works all day long, but we both know that 18th century philosophical works were never the concern.
        jackyinger 9mo ago
        You are persistently referring to partisan politics in your comments. I am not. I have repeatedly distanced myself from partisan politics in this discussion. I believe I have not made a single statement supporting partisan politics, much less a particular party, in this entire discussion. If you disagree, perhaps you can quote an example.

ACCount37 9mo ago

You start by allowing "politics as a broader thing", flash forward a year, then you notice that at any given time, at least 20% of the frontpage is occupied by people screeching their throats raw with some incendiary hyper-partisan rhetoric. The failure mode is rather obvious, and also extremely hard to avoid in practice.

jackyinger 9mo ago
You’ll note I never suggested that hackernews was the forum for this. If that failure mode is inevitable in hackernews culture, what does that say about the quality of the technical & business content?
- ACCount37 9mo ago
  "If putting rat poison in the burgers would cause people to die, what does this say about the quality of the burgers?" Very little. I've been told most hackers are humans - not machines or some kind of alien species. So I fully expect hackers to have the flaws people tend to do. Partisan politics have a nasty habit of capitalizing on human flaws, and bringing out the worst in people who engage deeply in them. Which, in online communities, can have a self-reinforcing effect.
  - jackyinger 9mo ago
    I’m not talking about partisan politics. Do some reading about political philosophy and you’ll see how terribly shallow partisan politics is, and how deep the foundations of politics are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_philosophy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Political_philosophy
    - ACCount37 9mo ago
      And yet we are talking about partisan politics. Because it's the lowest common denominator of politics. Because it's the failure mode. You can say "not all politics are actively toxic to human minds" and point at 18th century philosophical works all day long, but we both know that 18th century philosophical works were never the concern.
      - jackyinger 9mo ago
        You are persistently referring to partisan politics in your comments. I am not. I have repeatedly distanced myself from partisan politics in this discussion. I believe I have not made a single statement supporting partisan politics, much less a particular party, in this entire discussion. If you disagree, perhaps you can quote an example.