Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online • Hacker News Board

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#121

Post by Guid_NewGuid » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 6:16 PM UTC

I mean on your incest example specifically there's an episode of New Amsterdam, a very Liberal show on what I assume is a Liberal channel, which deals with exactly the situation you raise and ends with a fairly "hands off" conclusion, live and let live effectively. As a majority position holder on the topic I find it unsettling but thought provoking.

It's very hard not to assume bad faith on the internet nowadays and the subtext of your post seems to align with the Free Speech position of "I should be able to say whatever I want, wherever and whenever I want, and publishers must platform me and any pushback or negative reaction is dictatorship".

Usually "whatever I want" is some combination of trans, race, class, AGW, right wing moral panic.

I don't know, maybe try sticking to platforms that are open to your 'bold' ideas and don't try and force everyone else to read them without reacting.

Edit: Hackernews is one of those platforms in my opinion. As much as I disagree with many of the moderation decisions I see here (since it requires an almost laughably naive interpretation of people's actions to respond in good faith sometimes and one wonders who benefits) I think this is an appropriate platform for many discussions and the good policy on throwaway accounts means I can express my true views on e.g. abolishing copyright which would be personally and professionally toxic if expressed on e.g. LinkedIn.

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#122

Post by seydor » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 7:26 PM UTC

Why would you want to do that? To vent? Everyone self-censors nowadays you're not alone.

I guess you want to test your opinions against the groupthink and get some feedback, improve or reject them. Well the mainstream internet is not good for that anymore, sorry. Try anonymous chats or even 1-1 chat. It doesnt matter that it is a small group - people are more similar than we think.

Especially on reddit where the remaining small group of unpaid workers who do the moderation have become pretty vicious and use the ban hammer as a de-stress toy.

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#123

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 7:31 PM UTC

pryelluw wrote: post #5

I mean, I don’t disagree with the general point of being privacy focused as a default. Yes, that should be everyone’s approach given that we don’t openly share in real life. However, I do find it hilarious in a rather childish way that you are surprised how people react to your opinion on incest. Of all opinions, why even use that as an example? It just shows that there simply is an issue of over sharing and not bein…

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#124

Post by [deleted] » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 7:34 PM UTC

nickthegreek wrote: post #54

alienbeast wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

OP never said anything about pedophilia, just incest between consenting adults. I guess you proved his point.

Most incest happening in the world is not done between consenting adults. It is done through rape of children. Leaving that out may be construed as a way to shift of the overton window on incest.

[deleted]

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#125

Post by lamontcg » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 9:23 PM UTC

awelxtr wrote: post #114

lamontcg wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Democracy/consensus is generally tyranny of the masses: not what is right. Yep, serial killers and such are cool, it is just blind statism led by all the sheeple that they're going to be locking up that Idaho murder guy. I am very contrarian and counterintuitive.

White centered, heterosexual centered, male centered opinions held in the last few centuries by the majority of people show that being held by the majority of people doesn't make an opinion right. Democracy isn't perfect and recognising it is important but at least it allows for change to happen if it's worth it so there is that

"White people are all wrong, so lets just do the opposite" is far from perfect as well. And I can't think of any culture in the world which is free from all kinds of internal oppressions, white people don't have a monopoly. Corruption and oppression pretty universally descends from greed, wealth and power. The particular people who have the wealth and power and the ones that seem shittiest at the time though. And that begs the question of if democracy would work a lot better without all those forces. Policies that the powerful don't like are often very popular, but are undermined by (typically) racist us vs. them sentiment--and is claiming that this is a "white (etc)" problem just playing into their hands...

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#126

Post by defrost » Thu, Jan 05, 2023, 11:11 PM UTC

awelxtr wrote: post #116

defrost wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> held in the last few centuries by the majority of people I suspect that India and China either individually or collectively might like to challenge you on that assertation of "majority". I'm guessing that was a deliberately self aware foot shooting comment crafted to highlight Anglo-centric myopia?

I didn't know that the world was a global democracy. Yeah, China's racist policiess are really making Europe a repressed minority /s Democracies are limited on scope to countries and yes, the comment was made focusing on the US.

It isn't - perhaps you might like to form better phrased comments to clearly indicate you're restricting yourself to a tiny sunset of the world when making broad sweeping statements rather than annexuring post restrictions after the fact.

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#127

Post by sanroot98 » Fri, Jan 06, 2023, 5:44 AM UTC

Make close real life friends and share your opinions there ,no body actually care in online world ,it's just one or other kind of echo chamber ,just separate ,online from real world

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#128

Post by nokya » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 12:29 PM UTC

And you should, unless you have actual training in hiding your traces online (and I don't mean something as simple as "use Tor and a VPN").

There are three situations where you should not assume privacy: 1. When you express yourself online. 2. When there is a smartphone in close proximity (whether yours or someone else's). 3. When you are in someone else's property or home. This includes apartments, houses, shopping venues, bars, restaurants, etc. You are almost always being recorded in some way or another (audio, photos, videos). This also includes your own home if you don't live alone or if you haven't actively banned any connected equipment from entering your premises (e.g. iot devices, smart TV, computer, smartphone, etc.).

If you feel an urge to share your true opinions anyways, I'd suggest the following: 1. Always assume you are being recorded. 2. Always assume what you say/write will be shared to third-parties by the people you trust the most and kept for years. Most often this is done involuntarily. Statistically speaking, you can assume that everyone around you has no clue on how to secure their own devices (e.g., smartphone, TV, vacuums, fridges, etc.) from sharing whatever they capture. 3. Always assume that at least one individual strongly disagrees with you, and he/she may actively hide this fact from you.

If you want to express yourself anonymously, get training. And by that, I don't mean read a webpage, I mean: talk to one or two experts who specialize in online anonymity.

But in most cases, keep your real thoughts for yourself.

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#129

Post by Tepix » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 2:27 PM UTC

marshray wrote: post #88

Tepix wrote: post #2

Not using the same (virtual) identity everywhere is a good idea in general.

Successfully maintaining multiple unlinkable online identities is more difficult than most people expect. One slip-up, and you're linked. Too much sharing and you're deanonymized completely. It's not a thing that most people can succeed at over the long term. For example, recently a Twitter data breach has been in the news. If you are two of the 400M users, then your phone number or some other bit of information will…

Yes, it's hard to keep them separate, however if the goal is go prevent automatic merging of several profiles, it can help.

Re: Tell HN: I'm scared of sharing my opinion online

#130

Post by SecurityMinded » Sat, Jan 07, 2023, 3:06 PM UTC

Like the Taylor Swift song, "Haters gonna hate-hate-hate" no matter what you say or do. Take me for example. I am active on a social media-ish site, on topics about immigration. As you can imagine, the discussions go way beyond expected due to people's strong opinions or what-not. And I am not the one to shut up because someone pesters me. I got doxed by this Indian scumbag, because I told him and thousands of others, how the H-1B visas actually work and why they are nit good in the long run for the US employers and the whole nation in general. He (assuming "he", might be a "her") tried to contact my employer and get me fired from my job. I had a very uncomfortable meeting with my HR rep. Did I stop? No? The scumbag from India? His profile on that site vanished. I think, he pissed off one too many people.