Live data from Hacker News

Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

newsweek.com

351–360 of 597 posts

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#351

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The person in question wasn't fired for "random takes" but rather being seen in the vicinity of services that have been seen in the vicinity of people making decidedly non-random takes on political matters. And now she, perhaps correctly, believes she is the victim of religious and political persecution. As for not being mass hysteria, from the outside looking in it's clearly exactly that. Firing someone because of a…

> The US left appear to be descendeding into full bore anti-conservative hysteria. The corporate actors involved here are nowhere near the left, they are closer to the center-right; the problem the Trumpist faction is facing isn’t that the Left doesn’t like them, its that they’ve earned the firm enmity of the centrist factions that, even when they opposed conservatives them on certain issues, kept good relations with…

As a centrist myself I disagree with the premise that centrists take issue with Trump.

I personally take issue with his heavy-handed approach to the George Floyd protests, but I consider George Bush Jr to be by far the worse president between the two. He's mostly just an arrogant asshole.

The left's response to him however... And I've spoken with many many other centrists online who agree with me so it's not clear to me why you think the centrists are anything but just silent so they don't get swept up in the hysteria (which is where I've been at for years now, which is why I've never been on Twitter, instagram, etc. Was on FB briefly and promptly left it long before it got popular to do so).

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#352
post #282
post #187

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In Germany there is the term "inner emmigration", if people oppose to the current system, but keep silent in fear of repression. This was coined during Nazi time, but also used to describe part of the opposition during socialism in East Germany. What it basically describes people who: - are opposed to the current political system (originally the Nazi regime) - cannot speak their opinion for fear of repressions . cann…

That's most certainly not true for Germany, at least if we are talking about German definitions of conservatism. A lot of GOP members are more close to what in the German political system would be seen as the extreme right, arguably bordering on the autocratic right. There is representation of the conservative voice both in media and the political system. There is repression, both informal and in the legal code, of N…

Don’t you guys have crosses on government buildings? https://www.cnn.com/2018/05/31/europe/bavaria-germany-crosse...

Didn’t Angela Merkel reject “multiculturalism?” https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/worldviews/wp/2015/12/14...

Don’t you have religious education in public schools? https://www.dw.com/en/in-german-schools-opt-out-of-religion-...

Isn’t abortion still technically illegally in Germany? https://www.dw.com/en/activists-in-germany-demand-legalizati.... And as a practical matter, German abortion law would be unconstitutional for multiple reasons under our Roe v. Wade.

Part of why the American GOP has gotten so wacky is that over the past 50 years American liberals have wiped social conservatism out of the public sphere in a way that doesn’t seem to be the case in Germany. In the US, saying what Merkel did that “multiculturalism is a failure” would get you branded a Nazi. Not even Trump would say that. Saying that abortion should generally be illegal after 12 weeks gets you lumped in with religious fundamentalists.

This is due to two features of the American political system. First, our courts have taken it upon themselves to adjudicate social issues that are in Europe handled by the legislature. Second, our social conservatives are split into different parties along racial lines. The Democratic Party is a coalition, but white liberals firmly control the social platform. Biden has promised to appoint a Black women Justice. Statistically speaking half of Black women oppose same-sex marriage. Do you think there is any chance Biden will appoint a socially conservative Black woman?

If the American political system was as meaningfully accommodating of social conservatism as the German one (and I think that would require getting our courts out of the business of being social moral arbiters) I think you’d see a lot more normalcy.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#353
post #63

Just a reminder that Newsweek ceased publication back in 2013, and the rights to its brand were purchased by an odd Christian sect, somewhat along the lines of The Washington Times and the Reunification Church. The new "Newsweek" capitalizes on the brand reputation of the old one, but has no connections to it; a good thing to do with Newsweek pieces is to check the byline and look up what their background is.

Honest question - it's obvious how you identify politically by all your posts here, but what has your comment got to do with the story? If it's a false story, say it. If it's not - what exactly are you saying with your comment?

> Honest question - it's obvious how you identify politically by all your posts here, but what has your comment got to do with the story?

If it's a false story, say it. If it's not - what exactly are you saying with your comment?

It seems like this should go without saying, but some news outlets have a better reputation for accuracy than others, and a story can be "true" in a technical sense while still being designed to further some agenda by omitting important context or facts.

I'd submit that understanding the biases and incentives of a publication are prerequisites to taking any of their content seriously. This is true of any outlet. This doesn't mean you discard outright their content, but you may view it through a more skeptical lens and seek out additional corroboration.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#354

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why is 'of colour' different/better/at all a good description of someone anyway? It's different in that it's a different phrase. It's better because it's different; terminology in this area is driven purely by fashion. https://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/1988/08/28

I think it has to do with which names have been chosen for people, and which chosen by people.

Not always, for example, Native American on reservations use the term Indian to refer to themselves, but outside this is becoming impolite in favour of Native American (including among some but not all Native Americans)[1][2]

See also the "Spastics Society", "National Association for the Advancement of Colored People", modern use of the n-word among black people, the use of "Negro" in "I have a Dream". Plenty of cases where a word in use by the group themselves becomes considered the impolite word.

[1]: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kh88fVP2FWQ

[2]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Native_American_name_controver...

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#355
post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Disabled" is being replaced by "differently abled".

That one was used pejoratively pretty much instantly, so never had much momentum, so my understanding is "person with disabilities" is the currently correct term.

Nope! "Person with" was almost instantly rejected because it is insulting to an unremovable aspect of someone's existence, condemning someone as broken and lesser.

Here we have a too-common case of virtue chasers on the "same side" attacking each other because they have slightly different useless solutions to a problem. (The way you to show more respect to different people with differences is to show more respect in actions, not to play word games that the vast majority of affected people with effects don't care about.)

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#356
post #303
post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I honestly don't know why people use "post what you're thinking" style social media at all at this point. With employers being so sensitive, how can the cost/benefit analysis ever really result in a determination that it's a good idea to be active on Twitter/Facebook (or Gab, Parler, TheDonald.win, etc.)? Maybe that's part of what makes things get so extreme on those sites. The most reasonable people know enough not…

I post about music on my Twitter. Tech stuff here. Instagram for my hobby photography. Facebook itself is long gone. And all for the reasons you’ve stated. I use none of them particularly often. I’m as left as they come, but I don’t trust that the winds won’t change or I will make a stupid decision, and my future is too important to risk that. And honestly I’m not missing much. If I want to talk politics, I do it wit…

> If I want to talk politics, I do it with my friends over a beer.

As a former Soviet citizen, this is particularly funny to me. Where the safest place for political discussion was at home, in the kitchen, with vodka and couple of good friends. It was part of Soviet culture back then.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#357

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> why is 'of colour' different/better/at all a good description of someone anyway? It's different in that it's a different phrase. It's better because it's different; terminology in this area is driven purely by fashion. https://www.gocomics.com/bloomcounty/1988/08/28

I think it has to do with which names have been chosen for people, and which chosen by people.

What happens if the name you chose for yourself doesn't match the name a Twitter mob chose for you, and they attack people using the name you prefer?

Approximately 97% of "Latinx" people do not identify as "Latinx".

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#358
post #307

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question - it's obvious how you identify politically by all your posts here, but what has your comment got to do with the story? If it's a false story, say it. If it's not - what exactly are you saying with your comment?

I used find GPs comments insightful, particularly with regard to computer security. Now his comments are predictably and assiduously leftist-political, and rarely on-topic to the article from what I've seen. > The new "Newsweek" capitalizes on the brand reputation of the old one, but has no connections to it From an external perspective it seems like the same argument could be made about the tptacek HN account. The p…

I don’t think it’s fair to disparage someone because they don’t share your political views. tptacek hasnt changed extremely; you just never knew.

I’ve been following him on Twitter for years; and I don’t believe he had changed at all - rather HN has had more political stories as the tech sector grew.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#359
post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Forget about credentials, hiring someone is a risk and you basically go into it as an employer flying blind. I request social media links (not passwords, just profile links) from everyone I'm considering hiring, because any/all information I can use to winnow potentially problem hires out before I make an offer is extremely valuable to me. You can tell a lot about a person from their social media profiles and posts.

Is this satire? The fact that you even specify that you "do not ask for passwords" for social media accounts of potential hires, is sketchy as fuck. I'm sorry for the desperate people that go along with this shit.

I wanted to clarify as there are reports of employers asking for people's social media login credentials (to log in as them and archive/review old/private posts) as a condition for hiring.

I think that's insane and abusive.

Asking to see someone's public webpage isn't.

Re: Agent fired from literary agency for using Parler and Gab

#360
post #296

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That one was used pejoratively pretty much instantly, so never had much momentum, so my understanding is "person with disabilities" is the currently correct term.

Nope! "Person with" was almost instantly rejected because it is insulting to an unremovable aspect of someone's existence, condemning someone as broken and lesser. Here we have a too-common case of virtue chasers on the "same side" attacking each other because they have slightly different useless solutions to a problem. (The way you to show more respect to different people with differences is to show more respect in…

> The way you to show more respect to different people with differences is to show more respect in actions, not to play word games that the vast majority of affected people with effects don't care about.

If anyone cared what the group being described thought about the terminology, no one would ever have tried to say "Latinx".

Like I said above, pure fashion.

Post reply on HN