Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

openculture.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 648 posts

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#181

Post by an_account »

flukus wrote: post #141
sigmar wrote: post #137

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I meant that the election of the first black president was a much bigger deal then the 40 somethingth white old dude But that (and many of the questions in that link) are not relevant to the specific question of how many people were at the inauguration. Which is the topic at hand. Those questions would be more relevant in a discussion of drawing other conclusions from the attendance numbers

I'm just trying to work out why it became a thing in the first place. Was Trump trying to play up attendance numbers or was someone trying play up the lack of them to be something meaningful?

There are tons of valid reasons why there was less attendance at this inauguration (many listed in the link you posted), which is exactly why it's weird and disgusting that Trump is blatantly lying about having attendance he very clearly didn't have.

It's not that big of a deal, and doesn't mean much that there was less attendance. The weather was bad and it was not historically significant because he's not the first black (or anything significant) president ever. So why is he so blatantly lying? He could just move on and it would be no big deal... but instead he makes a very large deal about it, dedicating a special press briefing specifically to make up lies about to explain how the media got it wrong.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#182

Post by jeffgreco »

refurb wrote: post #166
vixen99 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why would a march be more significant than the votes of 62 million people? I agree that an awakening is overdue given that for instance, America’s child poverty levels are worse than in any developed country anywhere, including Greece and only Slovakia, Chile, Mexico and Turkey have worse infant mortality rates. Median adult wealth is 27th out of 27 high-income countries; internet speed and access is 16th out of 34 c…

people living below the poverty line - US is 36th out of 162 countries, behind Morocco and Albania You do realize how ridiculous that stat looks right? Are you arguing the poor are worse off in the US than in Morocco? And let me guess, the poverty stat is excluding income transfers? I swear to god politics has gotten even nuttier in the US than it has been. And it was nutty before! Facts don't matter, crushing your o…

People living below the poverty line seems to be discussing # of people, not their quality of life. Whatever study this is presumably controls for poverty line country-by-country.

So: sure, ridiculous if you came to the stat looking for "worse off," I guess?

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#183

Post by akiselev »

knieveltech wrote: post #99
noobermin wrote: post #50

While I love 1984, I think Fahrenheit 451 has become more true than Orwell's novel. People have willingly given into an information bonanza that is the internet, with headphones always in (seashells). We don't need the TV walls, as our cellphone has taken that role, altogether with the hyperactive delivery of such content. A collectivist state has not become the dominating power, but wealthy individuals and corporati…

I feel that if you honestly believe the world is unambiguously better now than it was 20-30 years ago this reflects either your youth or privilege more so than any objective truth. I'll just leave this here: http://thebulletin.org/timeline

If you honestly don't believe the world is unambiguously better now than it was 20-30 years ago, you've been living under a continental plate the entire time. The world has gotten better in almost every way including the rapid fall in poverty rates, more reliable sources of food and medicine, and better access to technology for even the poorest folk. All the problems that seem so overwhelming now like the threat of nuclear war, growing confrontationalism between and within countries, or extreme nationalism were way worse before the 90s (unless, of course, you honestly believe that the United States is the only nation on the planet and you have a nostalgic predilection for the "good ol' days"). Not to mention that the majority of the world has finally recognized and united around solving the single greatest threat to our civilization, a threat that pretty much irreversibly changed our climate by the time we identified it and became completely unavoidable by the 1990s.

If all you're going to do is provide a link to an arbitrary countdown with scary words like "nuclear" and "catastrophe" as your evidence, might as well skip the sciency sounding fluff and just link one of Nostradamus's books. Until then, I'll fondly remember just how priveleged I was growing up in the Soviet Union and reconstruction-era Russia. /s

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#184

Post by zamalek »

noobermin wrote: post #50

While I love 1984, I think Fahrenheit 451 has become more true than Orwell's novel. People have willingly given into an information bonanza that is the internet, with headphones always in (seashells). We don't need the TV walls, as our cellphone has taken that role, altogether with the hyperactive delivery of such content. A collectivist state has not become the dominating power, but wealthy individuals and corporati…

Indeed. In addition to your points, Orwell has to do with both an overreaching left (thought crime) and right (surveillance state). The government even associates itself with socialism.

That being said, it's not a stretch to imagine that it takes two successive and opposed politicians to set up and orwellian state. Trump would set up the surveillance state (as he threatens to do), and some future authoritative Democrat could outlaw freedom of speech.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#185

Post by afterburner »

beloch wrote: post #17

I must admit, I'm really confused by how impeachment works in the U.S.. Clinton was impeached for perjury and abuse of power because he took advantage of his position (and a political intern) and then lied about it. Now we have a president who is not giving up his business interests while in office and who has already told some absolute whoppers, including the release of official press releases that were nothing but…

Clinton was impeached because Congress was Republican and was trying like heck to pin something, anything, on him. It started with Whitewater and went wherever they could push it after that. Remember, this is when the government shutdowns started.

Trump is a Republican, so the current Republican Congress isn't going to be too picky.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#186

Post by pvg »

beloch wrote: post #17

I must admit, I'm really confused by how impeachment works in the U.S.. Clinton was impeached for perjury and abuse of power because he took advantage of his position (and a political intern) and then lied about it. Now we have a president who is not giving up his business interests while in office and who has already told some absolute whoppers, including the release of official press releases that were nothing but…

Clinton was impeached for perjury and obstruction of justice, not abuse of power.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#187

Post by bduerst »

xname2 wrote: post #111
dllthomas wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm really confused by how impeachment works in the U.S. Impeachment requires a crime. Lying isn't usually a crime, and as best I can tell hasn't been one any of the times Trump has done it (.. yet?). It also hasn't been a crime any of the times Obama has done it. Failure to give up business interests is breaking precedent and confounding ethicists, but also doesn't seem to be illegal. When we come up with somethin…

I can't believe there are so many people here suggest DJT should totally give up his business. This is basically the same as saying no business person should run for the president, so just leave it only to career politicians. Gets lots of downvotes for no reason. The hates toward DJT are crazy.

It's so the business can't be used as leverage against him when making decisions for the country he was elected to represent.

Do you really want a leader who is using their power to profit only themselves?

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#188

Post by ScottBurson »

jobigoud wrote: post #133
dllthomas wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"accept of any present, Emolument, Office, or Title, of any kind whatever" Payments in exchange for regular business which would have been engaged in anyway would seem not to apply, although there's disturbing room for corruption there.

I'm not a native speaker but shouldn't this be "of any kind whatsoever"?

"Whatsoever" is the stronger form, but either is correct.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#189

Post by loafa »

School-Cotton wrote: post #142
flukus wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Why is anyone still talking about Hillary Clinton? Because we're trying to ascertain if the complainers are genuinely principled or partisan hacks. I've a feeling most of them would be turning a blind eye if it wasn't trump.

Why does it matter? The complaints are either right, or they're wrong. The complainers' motives for making their complains have no bearing on that.

Maybe, but for those of us who aren't experts on constitutional law, it's difficult to ascertain exactly who is in the right, we have to decide which self-proclaimed experts to believe.

For this reason it's helpful to understand the motives of those putting forth a particular argument.

I have a rule, and I think it's a good one. When I hear some political rhetoric I ask myself "if the parties were reversed would this person still be saying the same thing?" If the answer is no, I ignore that person. This cuts out about 97% of all political discussion and saves a lot of time.

Re: George Orwell’s 1984 is currently the top selling book on Amazon

#190

Post by VickBear »

jaredklewis wrote: post #74
shard972 wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> "alternative facts" I think people are taking this and running at breakneck speed without stopping to look at what they actually mean by this. After watching the first few press conferences and Kelly Anne's interviews where she said that, it seems clear to me they weren't trying to say there were more people physically at the inauguration in their "alternative facts" but what they are referring to specifically is t…

Direct quote from Sean Spicer: > This was the largest audience to ever witness an inauguration, period, both in-person and around the globe If "in-person" doesn't mean "physically at the inauguration" what does it mean then? It is not ambiguous. Spicer made an unsubstantiated claim, and has since been defensively walking it back to the equally unsubstantiated second part of "around the globe." "The media" is a very b…

Why are you ignoring the second part of the sentence? He even clarified that he was saying total number of viewership (in person, TV, streaming). There is way more access to watching the Inauguration today than 4 years ago.
Post reply on HN