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Here is why pattern matching is bullshit: https://medium.com/best-thing-i-found-online-today/8178b279430f https://medium.com/best-thing-i-found-online-today/81

Here is why pattern matching is bullshit: https://medium.com/best-thing-i-found-online-today/8178b279430f https://medium.com/best-thing-i-found-online-today/8178b2794... Here, I'll even save you the trouble of clicking: To be direct: Pattern recognition is bullshit voodoo pseudo-science masquerading as objectivity and meritocracy. It’s sexism, racism, ageism, homophobia, and xenophobia dressed up as science. It sickens me.

jv22222 13y ago
From the post you linked to... "So pattern recognition is a useless heuristic made up by a group of rich white men as a way to quantify something" If that statement isn't racist, biased, and, well, just quite mean really, then I'm not sure what is.
- melindajb 13y ago
  cry me a river. you don't get to whine about this stuff, when you're the party in power. Work to better it, stop whining, that's what those people tell everyone else.
  - vezzy-fnord 13y ago
    Your post history shows that you are either a good troll or a deluded radical that is the living embodiment of every Tumblr feminist trope. What motivates this toxic revanchist mindset that every single white man has homogenous and equally distributed power, simply due to being part of a group due to their skin color? This type of identity politics is no different than Luce Irigaray claiming E = mc^2 is a "sexed equation" and that it privileges the speed of light. It is postmodern, Western-centric and extremist lunacy. Ultimately though, most distressing is your sociopathy.
    - melindajb 13y ago
      Nice try, fake name. I'm none of those things. I said none of these things. But your toxic, anonymous rage and sweeping generalizations? Well, that's pretty much the definition of sociopathy. Way to keep Hacker News productive and constructive!
  - mrbtie 13y ago
    "you don't get to whine about this stuff, when you're the party in power" ROFLOL You must think of yourself as some sort of vigilante, right?
    - melindajb 13y ago
      Nope, I'm a normal person who gets upset occasionally, and most of the time doesn't bother. I've seen a lot of this for many, many years, and sometimes, I just feel the need to get involved. Then I get back to work. I wish I was a vigilante, then I could be like Chuck Norris. Who is awesome.
  - reinhardt 13y ago
    Apparently Big Red found HN: https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/429807ce6351bcfc16827a9e92f9f16d/tumblr_mm82q70tov1spma7co1_1280.jpg https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/42980...
- zorpner 13y ago
  I always hesitate to post this on HN, because it almost never goes well, but here it is: Racism (sexism/classism/etc) is not about race (sex/class/etc). It's about power. For this reason alone (let alone all the other good ones), there is no symmetry in these biases (e.g. the false equivalence of misogyny and misandry).
  - vezzy-fnord 13y ago
    This is a sly redefinition of racism that largely fails to withstand scrutiny: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Prejudice_plus_power http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Prejudice_plus_power
    - zorpner 13y ago
      From that link: "It is important to push for the understanding that racism is 'prejudice plus power' and therefore people of color cannot be racist against whites in the United States. People of color can be prejudiced against whites but clearly do not have the power as a group to enforce that prejudice." That's pretty much exactly the case! Thanks for the great quote.
      - teacup50 13y ago
        That's racist nonsense. Racism is extrapolating a set of unfounded biases across an entire race, which is exactly what you're doing.
      - skeg 13y ago
        So Barack Obama couldn't be racist against a school janitor because the school janitor has more power?
  - mcantelon 13y ago
    >Racism (sexism/classism/etc) is not about race The popular, and dictionary, definition of "racism" is "hatred or intolerance of another race or other races".
thibauts 13y ago
Not everybody it out to hurt you, discriminate, or hate you. That being said, immediate reaction / assumptions cannot be treated the same way as thoughtful examination. At all.
- melindajb 13y ago
  Your assumption that I said that says far more about you than it does me. People who shrug and claim pattern matching instead of being rational and overriding their immediate response are discriminating in a way I find offensive. I believe that is what you are saying in your second paragraph. Our humanity is the supposed to be the part of our brains that allows us to override animal instincts to fight, fuck, steal, and kill without hesitation. So it's not so much to ask that if you're a white man and you think something crappy about a woman or minority, that you might stop and ask yourself to validate that, or find a better way to explain or phrase it.
  - melindajb 13y ago
    thanks for the downvote! I wear it as a badge of honor.
Pherdnut 13y ago
But oh-so-handy for validating e-mail addresses.
- melindajb 13y ago
  you get an upvote for funny. well done!

jv22222 13y ago

From the post you linked to... "So pattern recognition is a useless heuristic made up by a group of rich white men as a way to quantify something" If that statement isn't racist, biased, and, well, just quite mean really, then I'm not sure what is.

melindajb 13y ago
cry me a river. you don't get to whine about this stuff, when you're the party in power. Work to better it, stop whining, that's what those people tell everyone else.
- vezzy-fnord 13y ago
  Your post history shows that you are either a good troll or a deluded radical that is the living embodiment of every Tumblr feminist trope. What motivates this toxic revanchist mindset that every single white man has homogenous and equally distributed power, simply due to being part of a group due to their skin color? This type of identity politics is no different than Luce Irigaray claiming E = mc^2 is a "sexed equation" and that it privileges the speed of light. It is postmodern, Western-centric and extremist lunacy. Ultimately though, most distressing is your sociopathy.
  - melindajb 13y ago
    Nice try, fake name. I'm none of those things. I said none of these things. But your toxic, anonymous rage and sweeping generalizations? Well, that's pretty much the definition of sociopathy. Way to keep Hacker News productive and constructive!
- mrbtie 13y ago
  "you don't get to whine about this stuff, when you're the party in power" ROFLOL You must think of yourself as some sort of vigilante, right?
  - melindajb 13y ago
    Nope, I'm a normal person who gets upset occasionally, and most of the time doesn't bother. I've seen a lot of this for many, many years, and sometimes, I just feel the need to get involved. Then I get back to work. I wish I was a vigilante, then I could be like Chuck Norris. Who is awesome.
- reinhardt 13y ago
  Apparently Big Red found HN: https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/429807ce6351bcfc16827a9e92f9f16d/tumblr_mm82q70tov1spma7co1_1280.jpg https://gs1.wac.edgecastcdn.net/8019B6/data.tumblr.com/42980...
zorpner 13y ago
I always hesitate to post this on HN, because it almost never goes well, but here it is: Racism (sexism/classism/etc) is not about race (sex/class/etc). It's about power. For this reason alone (let alone all the other good ones), there is no symmetry in these biases (e.g. the false equivalence of misogyny and misandry).
- vezzy-fnord 13y ago
  This is a sly redefinition of racism that largely fails to withstand scrutiny: http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Prejudice_plus_power http://rationalwiki.org/wiki/Prejudice_plus_power
  - zorpner 13y ago
    From that link: "It is important to push for the understanding that racism is 'prejudice plus power' and therefore people of color cannot be racist against whites in the United States. People of color can be prejudiced against whites but clearly do not have the power as a group to enforce that prejudice." That's pretty much exactly the case! Thanks for the great quote.
    - teacup50 13y ago
      That's racist nonsense. Racism is extrapolating a set of unfounded biases across an entire race, which is exactly what you're doing.
    - skeg 13y ago
      So Barack Obama couldn't be racist against a school janitor because the school janitor has more power?
- mcantelon 13y ago
  >Racism (sexism/classism/etc) is not about race The popular, and dictionary, definition of "racism" is "hatred or intolerance of another race or other races".

thibauts 13y ago

Not everybody it out to hurt you, discriminate, or hate you. That being said, immediate reaction / assumptions cannot be treated the same way as thoughtful examination. At all.

melindajb 13y ago
Your assumption that I said that says far more about you than it does me. People who shrug and claim pattern matching instead of being rational and overriding their immediate response are discriminating in a way I find offensive. I believe that is what you are saying in your second paragraph. Our humanity is the supposed to be the part of our brains that allows us to override animal instincts to fight, fuck, steal, and kill without hesitation. So it's not so much to ask that if you're a white man and you think something crappy about a woman or minority, that you might stop and ask yourself to validate that, or find a better way to explain or phrase it.
- melindajb 13y ago
  thanks for the downvote! I wear it as a badge of honor.

Pherdnut 13y ago

But oh-so-handy for validating e-mail addresses.

melindajb 13y ago
you get an upvote for funny. well done!