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People like this have apparently forgotten that if all else fails, the hoi polloi will start voting with guillotines.

by themgt 13y ago

nickff 13y ago
'Give us your money now, or we will give you the guillotine later' is not even a veiled threat, it is outright extortion.
- angrybits 13y ago
  It's simply a reference to history, as desperate people do desperate things. After all, what wouldn't you do to feed your kids?
beat 13y ago
This is a followup to his previous idiocy, when he compared not liking rich people to the Holocaust.
- nostrademons 13y ago
  I wouldn't be surprised if he is intentionally being provocative, taking an extreme position so that the actual reality of tech workers driving up rents seems more moderate. It's like he's trying to get ahead of the controversy by acting as a lightning rod for criticism, so that rather than it snowballing, everybody gets mad at him and forgets about what they were mad at originally. I've known several old-school Silicon Valley managers that do this frequently - they toss out a strawman that's way more extreme than anything anybody would want to do, which anchors your outrage so that whatever the actual goal is seems perfectly reasonable. It's basic behavioral economics - people do it in negotiations all the time.
  - jack-r-abbit 13y ago
    A classic example: When Alec Issigonis designed the Mini in the 1950s, he wanted very small wheels. "Ten-inch (254 mm) wheels were specified, so new tyres had to be developed, the initial contract going to Dunlop. Issigonis went to Dunlop stating that he wanted even smaller, 8 in (203 mm) wheels (even though he had already settled on ten-inch). An agreement was made on the ten-inch size, after Dunlop rejected the eight-inch (203 mm) proposition." [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini#Design_and_development http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini#Design_and_development
  - beat 13y ago
    In politics, that's part of "moving the Overton window". But here, it's hard to tell whether he's really trying to change the terms of the debate, or if he's just spent so long in his privileged bubble that he can't comprehend what life is like for 99.9999% of the world.
- yetanotherphd 13y ago
  You don't seem to notice the irony of calling his comparison to the holocaust idiotic, while the parent comment was threatening the rich with guillotines.
  - gopher1 13y ago
    So the French Revolution and the Holocaust/WW2 are interchangeable to you? 40 thousand deaths vs 70 million deaths...
    - jack-r-abbit 13y ago
      Don't be daft. Things don't have to be interchangeable to draw comparisons. Dogs and cats are not interchangeable but if someone said "I don't like dogs because they shed. I am a cat person." we should be able to point out that cats also shed without fear of someone saying we think cats and dogs are interchangeable. Edit: And no... I don't think animal hair and the Holocaust are interchangeable.
  - beat 13y ago
    I'm not sure you understand "irony". The guillotine was, historically, the symbol of revolutionary response by a victimized peasant class against wealthy, out of touch overlords. Yes, it's obnoxious, but it's basically correct to the situation. If the balance of power and distribution of wealth continue to tip toward a tiny minority, revolution becomes a real danger. The Holocaust, on the other hand, was not a revolution against a class of wealthy overlords (unless you happen to agree with Hitler, and I'm assuming you don't). It was a racist genocide. The only thing the French revolution and the Holocaust have in common are politically motivated violence. The root causes of the violence are totally different.

People like this have apparently forgotten that if all else fails, the hoi polloi will start voting with guillotines.

by themgt 13y ago

People like this have apparently forgotten that if all else fails, the hoi polloi will start voting with guillotines.

'Give us your money now, or we will give you the guillotine later' is not even a veiled threat, it is outright extortion.

angrybits 13y ago
It's simply a reference to history, as desperate people do desperate things. After all, what wouldn't you do to feed your kids?

beat 13y ago

This is a followup to his previous idiocy, when he compared not liking rich people to the Holocaust.

nostrademons 13y ago
I wouldn't be surprised if he is intentionally being provocative, taking an extreme position so that the actual reality of tech workers driving up rents seems more moderate. It's like he's trying to get ahead of the controversy by acting as a lightning rod for criticism, so that rather than it snowballing, everybody gets mad at him and forgets about what they were mad at originally. I've known several old-school Silicon Valley managers that do this frequently - they toss out a strawman that's way more extreme than anything anybody would want to do, which anchors your outrage so that whatever the actual goal is seems perfectly reasonable. It's basic behavioral economics - people do it in negotiations all the time.
- jack-r-abbit 13y ago
  A classic example: When Alec Issigonis designed the Mini in the 1950s, he wanted very small wheels. "Ten-inch (254 mm) wheels were specified, so new tyres had to be developed, the initial contract going to Dunlop. Issigonis went to Dunlop stating that he wanted even smaller, 8 in (203 mm) wheels (even though he had already settled on ten-inch). An agreement was made on the ten-inch size, after Dunlop rejected the eight-inch (203 mm) proposition." [1] [1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini#Design_and_development http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mini#Design_and_development
- beat 13y ago
  In politics, that's part of "moving the Overton window". But here, it's hard to tell whether he's really trying to change the terms of the debate, or if he's just spent so long in his privileged bubble that he can't comprehend what life is like for 99.9999% of the world.
yetanotherphd 13y ago
You don't seem to notice the irony of calling his comparison to the holocaust idiotic, while the parent comment was threatening the rich with guillotines.
- gopher1 13y ago
  So the French Revolution and the Holocaust/WW2 are interchangeable to you? 40 thousand deaths vs 70 million deaths...
  - jack-r-abbit 13y ago
    Don't be daft. Things don't have to be interchangeable to draw comparisons. Dogs and cats are not interchangeable but if someone said "I don't like dogs because they shed. I am a cat person." we should be able to point out that cats also shed without fear of someone saying we think cats and dogs are interchangeable. Edit: And no... I don't think animal hair and the Holocaust are interchangeable.
- beat 13y ago
  I'm not sure you understand "irony". The guillotine was, historically, the symbol of revolutionary response by a victimized peasant class against wealthy, out of touch overlords. Yes, it's obnoxious, but it's basically correct to the situation. If the balance of power and distribution of wealth continue to tip toward a tiny minority, revolution becomes a real danger. The Holocaust, on the other hand, was not a revolution against a class of wealthy overlords (unless you happen to agree with Hitler, and I'm assuming you don't). It was a racist genocide. The only thing the French revolution and the Holocaust have in common are politically motivated violence. The root causes of the violence are totally different.