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The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

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Re: The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

#11

Post by rriepe »

blakesterz wrote: post #4

Somehow I read this and I'm not sure what the actual Unsettling Truth was, but it still was interesting, I learned a few new things, and I've been following this one pretty close. The more I read about this the more I'm reminded of Chris McCandless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McCandless

The unsettling truth is that society really, really despises people with schizoid personality disorder.

(EDIT: People with SPD are averse to violence and prone to all kinds of abuse. The he-said/she-said stuff is particularly useless here.)

Re: The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

#12

Post by 542458 »

lisper wrote: post #7

TL;DR: This is about a hiker who went by the name Mostly Harmless who was found dead in his tent. No one knows how he died. That's it. But for the unusual name, it seems safe to say that this would not be on the front page of HN.

I think the way they ID’ed this John Doe (trawling forum posts, DNA testing and advertising) is pretty interesting and I upvoted on that basis. It’s also a partial answer to a mystery that was pretty widely shared around the internet, so is interesting on that basis as well.

Re: The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

#13

Post by f38zf5vdt »

bena wrote: post #6
blakesterz wrote: post #4

Somehow I read this and I'm not sure what the actual Unsettling Truth was, but it still was interesting, I learned a few new things, and I've been following this one pretty close. The more I read about this the more I'm reminded of Chris McCandless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McCandless

The unsettling truth was that he was apparently an abusive malcontent who decided to run away from the problems he created once again.

It's a shame, he could have had a healthy and productive life just posting every day to the Linux kernel mailing list.

Re: The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

#14

Post by mlang23 »

blakesterz wrote: post #4

Somehow I read this and I'm not sure what the actual Unsettling Truth was, but it still was interesting, I learned a few new things, and I've been following this one pretty close. The more I read about this the more I'm reminded of Chris McCandless. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chris_McCandless

What an absurd story. Wikipedia lists one travel, in fact the first and last one. How sad. And why the heck do you venture out into the bushes only to live in a abandoned bus? I mean, yeah, how convenient. I can see that. But it is also weird.

Re: The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

#15

Post by LatteLazy »

trianglem wrote: post #8
bena wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The unsettling truth was that he was apparently an abusive malcontent who decided to run away from the problems he created once again.

Based on what? Some ex’s word?

But he told obscure jokes! But yeah, I think the title is clickbait, nothing here actually seems unsettling.

Re: The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

#16

Post by notfbi »

lisper wrote: post #7

TL;DR: This is about a hiker who went by the name Mostly Harmless who was found dead in his tent. No one knows how he died. That's it. But for the unusual name, it seems safe to say that this would not be on the front page of HN.

The mystery was well covered on HN before due to him being a programmer and plausibly active in coding/gaming online communities:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24981786

Re: The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

#18

Post by Dig1t »

edmundsauto wrote: post #10
lisper wrote: post #7

TL;DR: This is about a hiker who went by the name Mostly Harmless who was found dead in his tent. No one knows how he died. That's it. But for the unusual name, it seems safe to say that this would not be on the front page of HN.

For fans of the hitch hikers guide series, the name isn’t unusual. It’s the name of one of the books.

(and the entire entry for the planet Earth inside the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book) ;)

Re: The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

#19

Post by c22 »

edmundsauto wrote: post #10
lisper wrote: post #7

TL;DR: This is about a hiker who went by the name Mostly Harmless who was found dead in his tent. No one knows how he died. That's it. But for the unusual name, it seems safe to say that this would not be on the front page of HN.

For fans of the hitch hikers guide series, the name isn’t unusual. It’s the name of one of the books.

It's an unusual name for a person.

Re: The unsettling truth about the ‘Mostly Harmless’ hiker

#20

Post by elliekelly »

LatteLazy wrote: post #15
trianglem wrote: post #8

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on what? Some ex’s word?

But he told obscure jokes! But yeah, I think the title is clickbait, nothing here actually seems unsettling.

> On a Saturday night in September 2016, K was injured when a terrorist set off a bomb on West 23rd Street in Manhattan. “I had pretty bad PTSD to which he hated caring for me, even kept a dated log of every time I needed help, to the point where he left me outside in the dark—knowing that at that time I couldn't be outside alone or be in the dark without panicking,” she recalls, before adding, “and this is only the light stuff.”

You don’t find this behavior unsettling? How about this anecdote being characterized as “this only the light stuff”?

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