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

The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

axios.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

661–670 of 784 posts

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#661

Post by nicky0 »

HWR_14 wrote: post #581
vorpalhex wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my pet theories for why social media is such a cesspool is that it exposes us to the whole of someone else. If I play boardgames with Sue, that's enough. We meet, enjoy a beer and play some Catan and go our separate ways. That's a fine relationship. If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing.. and frankly, I don't care or want to. I'…

> Humanity either needs to "agree to disagree" on wide swaths of things we care a whole bunch about (abortion, firearms, lgbtq, etc) or we need to go back to not discussing those things in public or polite company. Two out of three of those aren't just random positions. If you believe someone else is literally advocating for murdering children, I can see why you would judge them. Similarly, if you see people oppressi…

Trans activists vs certain feminists is a big debate currently.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#662

Post by Bancakes »

madrox wrote: post #273
vorpalhex wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my pet theories for why social media is such a cesspool is that it exposes us to the whole of someone else. If I play boardgames with Sue, that's enough. We meet, enjoy a beer and play some Catan and go our separate ways. That's a fine relationship. If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing.. and frankly, I don't care or want to. I'…

My favorite theory comes from an HN comment describing it as the "toaster fucker problem." I'd attempt to re-explain it, but the original comment is great (and easy to search for. Not many mentions of the phrase "toaster fucker" on HN.) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25667362

It's a naive and overly courageous assumption that people around you are competent and capable. For instance, I've yet to see someone play proper tennis, do proper pullups, play proper guitar, etc.

At some point you have to branch off and learn from others.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#663

Post by dredmorbius »

9wzYQbTYsAIc wrote: post #608
dredmorbius wrote: post #592

Earlier quoted context omitted.

His argument is more nuanced, and ... includes examples. I've only managed about 3 chapters of the book so far. It has proved quite illuminating. There are examples of systems that do model well and those that don't. Depending on your physics, the 3, 2, 1, or null-body problems. The double pendulum. Etc. And those are only at the very simplest level. The fact that some systems can be effectively modelled doesn't mean…

> The fact that some systems can be effectively modelled doesn't mean that all can be. Based on my understanding, the leading-edge of scientific research shows that “if the human mind can comprehend it, then there is a mathematical function for it” Are you positing, then, that there simply are limits to what humans can understand? Or, rather, that some systems are just too complex to document properly?

1. No.

2. Yes, yes.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#664

Post by Bancakes »

dskwww wrote: post #654
madrox wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My favorite theory comes from an HN comment describing it as the "toaster fucker problem." I'd attempt to re-explain it, but the original comment is great (and easy to search for. Not many mentions of the phrase "toaster fucker" on HN.) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25667362

[flagged]

Ironically you're only acknowledging the toxic minority of the internet. If anything, if you can't make use of it to find and make friends, colleagues, and family - you are the maladapted one.

The internet provides you with a dozen lifetimes worth of information so you improve yourself. Far beyond what your yokel neighbors could teach you. The need for a extended family is still here and you can compensate with the internet for being born in a shithole country or flyover state.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#665

Post by hedgewitch »

raxxorrax wrote: post #659
hedgewitch wrote: post #597

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you don't understand that the problem is that detractors have made simply being LGBTQ+ a political issue, you are not qualified to have an opinion here. I'm curious what you think you mean because there is no good answer. I also wouldn't have had to comment at all if people weren't casually asking people to instate don't ask don't tell in social settings.

Nobody can stop you if you want to be oppressed but that is not in any way representative of LGBT.

Nobody can stop you from trying to shut down arguments by telling people that the insinuation that their existence is somehow so controversial that people can just casually suggest that discussing it in public is akin to discussing abortion and gun laws somehow isn't a form of oppression that is above and beyond what would be called a microaggression, but, if you did, I'd hazard a guess that you aren't part of the oppressed party and aren't qualified to speak on their behalf.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#667

Post by yodelshady »

madrox wrote: post #273
vorpalhex wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of my pet theories for why social media is such a cesspool is that it exposes us to the whole of someone else. If I play boardgames with Sue, that's enough. We meet, enjoy a beer and play some Catan and go our separate ways. That's a fine relationship. If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing.. and frankly, I don't care or want to. I'…

My favorite theory comes from an HN comment describing it as the "toaster fucker problem." I'd attempt to re-explain it, but the original comment is great (and easy to search for. Not many mentions of the phrase "toaster fucker" on HN.) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=25667362

The counter to that is - sometimes the toaster fuckers are right. See: civil rights, women's suffrage, LGBT.

My pet dream: Everybody Gets One, maybe two, things to be "radical" about. You reckon the earth is flat? Sure. You don't get that AND vaccines are micro-chipped AND an antisemitic 9/11 theory. Spend that token wisely.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#668

Post by stevage »

vorpalhex wrote: post #146
toastercat wrote: post #71

I tried being a Twitter user for a bit last year, mostly because a lot of engineers I admire use it to communicate about interesting topics and also their work. But after a while, I realized even they will pollute my feed with politically divisive topics, whether it be from them retweeting something, or liking a tweet, or even entering into the fray themselves -- Twitter will find a way to get me to see it. For a whi…

One of my pet theories for why social media is such a cesspool is that it exposes us to the whole of someone else. If I play boardgames with Sue, that's enough. We meet, enjoy a beer and play some Catan and go our separate ways. That's a fine relationship. If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing.. and frankly, I don't care or want to. I'…

That's half of it. The other problem is that now you are connected to Edna's unsavoury friends, and can now easily argue with them about any of these issues. Edna's dad might randomly join a conversation you were having about something unrelated.

We're not really equipped to be so connected to people we don't agree with about everything.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#669

Post by thaumasiotes »

vorpalhex wrote: post #146
toastercat wrote: post #71

I tried being a Twitter user for a bit last year, mostly because a lot of engineers I admire use it to communicate about interesting topics and also their work. But after a while, I realized even they will pollute my feed with politically divisive topics, whether it be from them retweeting something, or liking a tweet, or even entering into the fray themselves -- Twitter will find a way to get me to see it. For a whi…

One of my pet theories for why social media is such a cesspool is that it exposes us to the whole of someone else. If I play boardgames with Sue, that's enough. We meet, enjoy a beer and play some Catan and go our separate ways. That's a fine relationship. If I follow Sue on social media, now I know her politics, religion, sex life, drug usage, opinions on every little thing.. and frankly, I don't care or want to. I'…

> Historically you didn't need to know everything about everyone.

Well... that would only be true in an urban environment. And historically, urban environments accounted for an insignificant share of the population.

The normal historical experience was that you knew everything about everyone else and they knew everything about you.

Re: The new silent majority: People who don't tweet

#670

Post by thaumasiotes »

superfrank wrote: post #256
jafoi wrote: post #194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Wouldn't work in practice - no one is going to pass an opportunity to broadcast their political views to as many people as possible.

I don't know. I definitely think some people would just mass broadcast to everyone. Using the example above, there's nothing stopping that person from bringing their whole self to board game night. They're choosing to avoid certain topics with a certain group of people, so I would expect some of that behavior to cary over to social media. If I think about something like the "close friends" feature on instagram, I hav…

> Using the example above, there's nothing stopping that person from bringing their whole self to board game night.

Not true, unless they're hosting.

Post reply on HN