4 ms·
Shouting people down isn’t “open debate”.
by abtinf 5mo ago
Shouting people down isn’t “open debate”.
- new_account_100 5mo agoAI promotional strategies are profoundly and uniquely illiberal. AI leaders are not interested in open debate and they have demonstrated this again and again. Shouting this person down is the appropriate, humane response.
- coldpie 5mo ago[flagged]
- new_account_100 5mo ago[flagged]
- the_gipsy 5mo agoWe love you!
- new_account_100 5mo ago[flagged]
- shimman 5mo agoI echo their sentiments 100%, I doubt I'm alone here either.
- coldpie 5mo agoI do, too, but a throwaway account busting into a conversation and screaming "everyone listen to me, me, me!" is a bit obnoxious, you know?
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- new_account_100 5mo ago[flagged]
- dang 5mo agoWe don't do that. We do ban accounts for egregiously breaking HN's guidelines, as you've already done repeatedly with this account. Please don't create accounts to break HN's rules with. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- deleted 5mo ago[deleted]
- nilirl 5mo agoSure, but where is this mythical "open debate" where nobody important ever shows up?
- fourside 5mo agoHe was on stage and had a mic. I don’t know that the students had a lot of options to make their voices heard in the situation. And since folks like Schmidt already have access to channels to spread their opinions and this was the students’ graduation I think they get a pass.
- ryandrake 5mo agoThis is exactly the meme: “I am being silenced! says the man with the microphone, book deal, and celebrity-level media access.”
- miltonlost 5mo agoSchmidt paying out millions in political donations isn't open debate. Schmidt having a speaking role at a commencement without anyone able to respond to him isn't "open debate". This is purely a monologue. There is no debate that was going to be had in the first place because Schmidt, by virtue of the location and occassion, wouldn't allow a response.
- fireflash38 5mo agoSpeaking over people on a microphone and loudspeaker isn't open debate either
- q931 5mo ago[dead]
- piva00 5mo agoShouting people with power down is the closest to an open debate you will get with them. No one with power like Schmidt will join in an open debate with you and me (well, unless you are one of the 9-figure millionaires that might be around HN), they circulate around others with similar power, they don't engage with the powerless, they have no need for it. They are not having a debate with us about rolling out AI, they just wield their power and do it unto us. Getting some backlash is the bare minimum, if our democratic systems worked we could use democratic processes to curtail their power, unfortunately those systems are also tilted very heavily towards the ones with outsized power already. If you leave people without a voice, shouting the powerful ones down is the least you should expect.
- ryandrake 5mo agoThese guys are obviously both tone deaf and totally unconcerned with the desires and fears of the next generation of hopeful knowledge workers. To have the audacity and callousness to stand in front of a group of people you are hoping to destroy for profit, and talk about the technology you are going to use to do this… I’m surprised these guys are only getting booed.
- therobots927 5mo ago[flagged]
- flowerthoughts 5mo agoHe could have stopped reading his script and addressed the obvious concern. He didn't. The students clearly wanted him to address their concerns, not hear a sales pitch. And he's probably there as the inspirational, senior, mature, leadership figure. That failed hard.
- jaredcwhite 5mo agoBooing is a valid form of debate. We could shout "your arguments are not made in good faith and you are a bad actor" but a boo accomplishes the same thing and is far more effective.
- nkrisc 5mo agoThis was a speech, not a debate. When you don’t like someone’s speech, this is how you can show it. People have been doing it for as long as people have given speeches.