XiJInPaddington

Now you're talking about something completely different than what you were talking about initially.

If something is worth doing it's worth doing. I'm glad for example the people trying to cure various diseases don't have the characteristic that you call humility but I reckon is something else entirely.

"As a nudge in that direction, I've...downweighted the generic subthreads which were rising to the top like bloated balloons and crowding out more interesting discussion (as typically happens in these cases)." - dang, master of HN

"Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master.”

Honestly it's sad how people on this website are okay with this Maoist nonsense, considering how brutally they attack trends like censorship and political correctness.

I'm surprised they didn't mention family. The last company I worked for, the daughters of one of the big-wigs were constantly getting promoted, even though they lacked any qualifications and weren't particularly competent with their nominal responsibilities. One had what was essentially a no show job. Their roles and titles became more and more important, and if you were an outside observer not aware of the circumstances, you'd probably conclude that each individual were extremely competent employees. It was almost as if they were using their father's influence in one company to pad their resumes in the event they needed to jump ship. Infuriating. I really think nepotism is something that people don't pay enough to. Just to take the entertainment industry, the number of actors whose parent is a successful actor has been something I can't help but to notice whenever I see a movie.

I mean even this article, look at the bio of one of the people they cite. Ruchika Tulshyan, "founder of the Seattle-based inclusion strategy firm Candour", is the daughter of a shipping and real estate magnate (https://www.thestar.com.my/lifestyle/archive/2012/02/04/pala...). Naturally no one mentions that.

Another thing I'd mention is the politics that comes with employment. Plenty of people get promoted because they are in a political clique, a faction that promotes and protects their own social interests almost always at the expense of the company. Competence doesn't really matter when you're more focused about expanding and preserving your political power rather than some bottom line. Not to mention, managers who are in your faction can easily find ways to skew the benchmarks so that their people come up on top, so that their people are the ones who look like gold stars. Their people will be working on the best assignments or more likely will be in a position where they can claim the credit while the work is being done by others. And while I certainly agree in the aggregate that black people are generally given less breathing space than other people, I have seen too many instances where the reverse is true: especially if they are protected by someone with power, it is nearly impossible to pointedly criticize continuous shoddy work because you do not want people to weaponize accusations of racism against you. It's even worse because those sorts of employees are totally aware of this and have no problem with taking advantage as much as they can.

I've heard people say DC is Hollywood for ugly people. I think its fair to say the workplace is Hollywood for parasitic people. And if I come across as bitter, it is because I totally am. Starting a job in a new company is just "once more into the breach" and if you're lucky you'll manage to get by without too much abuse and if you're unlucky you'll go through a social meat grinder just to make a living. But I'm certain this feeling is shared by the majority of people who get shafted because they couldn't make it in life via their family's connections and wealth or they don't approach their job as a game of Diplomacy first and work a distant second. I think this phenomenon is a lot more complex than "black people and women have it bad", I think it's just a microcosm of how shameless people can be in social groups as a whole. And the people behind this paper, it's not as if they haven't thought of what I'm speaking of. But why bite the hands that feed them?

I didn't realize that was an option - thanks for the hint.

It's strange to me how any censorship from Facebook is savaged on this site but I rarely see censorship on HackerNews criticized. This website habitually shadowbans people and controversial comments are hidden as if they never existed. The mods here explicitly warn people against rocking the boat, all in the name of "preserving what this site is for". The disparity is very odd to me. In many ways it seems like people are totally fine with censorship, until someone they don't like or agree with is doing the censorship. At the very least Facebook will tell you they are censoring you. Shadowbanning, a prevalent practice on HN, I think is even worse and more abusive, yet it seems the majority of users here don't have an issue with this. Maybe I'm missing something, but from my perspective the hypocrisy is laughable.

Edit: I think people are missing the point. I don't particularly disagree with any of the replies. HN's commentary is pretty superb in part due to censorship and I agree that without a big stick being used open communities turn to trash. My question is though, why are people defending the mods here but when FB tries to do the same thing, we act like FB is some cyber Gestapo out to dominate speech on the web. It boils down to HN good, FB bad; it's shallow and hypocritical. And I maintain that shadowbanning is an abusive practice. If a user's behavior is such that the user can no longer participate, the user ought to know this. Shadowbanning is like internet gaslamping. You are telling the user one thing while the reality of the situation is different. Websites should not be playing these mind games with their users.

It's extremely rad that you can trace your ancestry back 1000 years. I guess I don't have much else to add besides that, but I'm someone whose knowledge of their ancestry stops 2 generations up so I'm kind of in awe by that fact. 1000 years!

Modi reminds me a lot of Tayyip Erdogan. Erdogan famously said democracy is like a train in that you get off once you've arrived at your destination. I see similar impulses from Modi and the BJP. I can very easily see Modi talking about how mandirs and shikharas are barracks and helmets. India is headed down a dangerous path and his perversion of Hinduism will not end well.

I certainly would have done the same, but there is a certain level of disdain I have toward these people with their faux outrage that is manufactured solely to maneuver themselves into a position where they can grab more benefit. This person, when Google jerked him around, made a big deal about how bridges had been permanently burned, how he would never do business with Google because of how Google treated their customers. But now, not even a month later, it turns out all that talk was pure BS. Now that they got what was theirs, they are more than happy to do business with the company they supposedly would never do business with again. How can we expect Google to reform for the better when every single person who could remotely put pressure on Google to change their habits folds when money is dangled in front of them? How can we be angry at the pimps when we live in a society where everyone dreams of being a whore, even when they don't have to be? The Terraria people certainly have the financial means to excise Google yet they chose not to. What is the point of having fuck you money if you are too spineless to ever say fuck you? We live in a society where we expect more dignity from minimum wage employees with no power than we do from the people who have the means to say no. This rot pervades every level and institution in our society and I am terrified of the consequences at the end of the ride.

God forgive me for defending Facebook, but doesn't it seem like a government totally controlled by the Murdoch empire is essentially shaking down Facebook? If Facebook can't reach an agreement with the media companies, aren't they totally within their rights to do as they did? I am confused how FB is the one doing the bullying in this scenario. It almost seems like Australia is employing tactics more recognizable to Mafia goons than a democratic government.

I feel like efforts like this is just a hamfisted example of preaching to the choir, a feel good bandaid for liberal worshippers at best. I don't see this affecting the minds of people who think a picture of Mohammad is cause to behead people. At the very least, the government should not be spending 30 million Euro on this. It seems more like extortion mixed with appeasement than anything else: please radical Muslims, can't you see your religion is just as respected in our secular society as any of the other religions? Please stop your random acts of heinous violence. Generally speaking, it seems for the most part Jews and Christians are able to worship separately without the threat of violence, without the help of the state. Why is it that only for Islam does society need to go out of its way to show its adherents that hey, we are people that don't deserve to be murdered in cold blood, come worship next to us and we will demonstrate we are just as worthy of life as you? Imagine there was a spate of violence against Muslims in Saudi Arabia or any Muslim majority nation committed by Jews or Christians. Do you think for a second the government there would sponsor a similar building? Why is it so difficult for European nations to draw a line in the sand and say, regardless of your religion, culture, or ethnic background, if you go around lopping off heads because you feel insulted the state will crush you. I feel like Western civilization coddles Muslims in part because they are afraid of being accused of racism but as some point we will need to acknowledge that people who get offended and start waving around scimitars need to be excised from civilized society, not have money wasted on pointless assimilation programs that don't seem to be needed for any other culture except the Islamic ones.

Because its the same thing as a person setting your house on fire then advising you not to breathe in the smoke. Advice like telling people we are drowning in plastic because we don't recycle, telling people with no access to public transportation to minimize the use of cars, telling people with no access to healthcare to take care of their bodies, telling people that grew up in a glorified prison they call public schools to get more education. They flood the world with plastic to the point where people effectively have no other option than use plastic then tell people to not use plastic. It's funny how if people say the solution to income inequality is to execute billionaires we would never seriously entertain that thought, we would immediately know that is an absurd solution, yet when people say guys choose not to use plastic we stop and consider it as if it is a viable solution for ordinary people and not callously asinine advise. It is no wonder there is so much rage in the Western world when the elites present such ridiculous solutions to problems they themselves brought into existence and expect us to act like they are priests endowed with God's personal blessing.

I'd like to state I did not submit this to make any political statement. I simply had no idea this sort of ideology existed and found it interesting to say the least. The scenario via which adherents would "destroy Japan" is bizarre to the point of hilarity.

Quite frankly I do not think people like Majorie Greene or Steve King being stripped of committee assignments sounds at all like a dictatorship. If anything I think that sentiment is really insulting to opposition leaders in actual dictatorships, who are thrown in jail if not executed. I think the casualness in which that word is bandied about speaks volumes about how people in the West take their free democracies for granted and lack understanding of how most of the rest of the world operates.

Am I alone in thinking the government reaction to this shows the complete ideological bankruptcy of supposed "free market" Republicans? When push comes to shove, they support government intervention as much as any bleeding heart liberal. The only differences are who they want to protect, where their political bread is buttered. What is different between an energy bill and a bill from a hospital?

At some point it's almost like we ought to treat Republican governments like a foreign adversary - just like putting sanctions on Russia is not ideal because ordinary non murdering Russians get hurt, it's not as if we can condemn regular Texans to freeze because of lowlives like Abbott and Cruz. But we have to do something about it, at some point the amount of damage they are doing to the republic has to be confronted.

That's pure speculation. We don't know what they would want, what they would do, how their society would be arranged. The only thing we know about a race of immortals is the fact that they are immortal.

I would give so much to live in a society where people like Aubrey de Gray are heroes like Elon Musk is in ours. The fact that people die does not have to be immutable fate. We look back at people seeking the fountain of youth or the philosophers stone with sneering contempt but at least they had the right goal. Our acquiescence of death is the greatest tragedy ever and collectively we ought to be ashamed of ourselves.

I wish this site would be less heavy handed when it comes to shadow banning. It seems like a significant number of comments ends up getting shadow banned and I find it both frustrating and a bit insulting. Compared to here, Reddit is an oasis of free speech.