It was a stupid and shameful tweet. The thing that elevates this above a drunk tweet though are the "real life" postcards. Should we ignore the fact that the postcards seem very much a false flag?
'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
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Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
#472I'm a little bit aghast at all the comments saying this is normal or no big deal. Maybe it is normal (or at least common), but it shouldn't be. If you believe it's no big deal, I can't agree. I can see this kind of behaviour from adolescents, but adults should understand that words are meaningful and have consequences, and that even if you disagree with someone, they're still a human being who deserves some modicum o…
But you would say this kinda thing to friends, people joke around all the time, it’s good to show that strength of emotion about something instead of having to PR speak your entire live.
Yikes, talk about normalizing violence in political discourse.
Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
#473Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
#474Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
#475Earlier quoted context omitted.
> We can debate about whether it should be normal, but clearly it is, right? I don't think it's even close to being normal. If it were, then this wouldn't have raised the firestorm it did.
The firestorm is entirely because Tan is rich and Asian. There’s always been a taboo on “punching down,” but in recent years in certain circles politicians have moved positions in the hierarchy.
I thought the firestorm was because some who is ostensibly smart did something objectively not smart.
Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apparently there is plenty of room for debate on this subject, and Brandenburg v Ohio — involving a KKK leader whose conviction under a state law for making threatening and racist remarks was overturned by a divided court — is still being hashed out by constitutional experts to this day. It doesn’t invalidate the central idea that free speech is different from inflammatory speech “condoning” violence (wink wink) when…
> Apparently there is plenty of room for debate on this subject, and Brandenburg v Ohio — involving a KKK leader whose conviction under a state law for making threatening and racist remarks was overturned by a divided court — is still being hashed out by constitutional experts to this day. There's always room for debate on anything, but nobody but a tiny minority of legal experts are "hashing out" the case. It's been…
I think we can both agree that online behavior can be harmful even when it is legally protected, and that free speech is a topic about which some people are very passionate.
Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
What effect? He's got fuck you money and can afford to do a Notch if he wanted.
What’s a Notch?
Notch is Markus Presson, the creator of Minecraft. He got $2.5 billion in cash from Microsoft when he sold it. In the years since he had a whole lot of controversial tweets, but that didn't' seem to affect him due to his wealth.
Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
#478Earlier quoted context omitted.
Posting that you want a group of city councilors to die is not normal behavior. It's not normal when sober, it's not normal on alcohol, it's not normal for any functioning member of society. Anyone saying these things is disturbing. The fact that someone who a number of people believe is intelligent and worth listening to would say such things is extremely disturbing.
What are you talking about? Political effigies are a whole thing, and not just in America: https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/2016-election/giant-trump-e...
This is the UK - do you have a US example? Because I know that doing this with current POTUS will get you a visit from Secret Service.
Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
#479Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Wishing death on political figures is a cherished American tradition It's a strange sort of "cherished American tradition" that is so subtle that I, as a native American more than a half-century old, have never even heard of it being a tradition before.
There’s a link in the comment you’re replying citing a 1969 Supreme Court case about this very type of situation. Yes Americans have cherished a very liberal/free definition of free speech rights.
> Americans have cherished a very liberal/free definition of free speech rights.
Absolutely. That wasn't what I was questioning. What I'm questioning is the proposition that wishing death on people is a "cherished American tradition". I don't think it is.
The American tradition is to be very permissive about how far speech can go before it becomes illegal. That's a very different thing.
Re: 'Stupid,' 'shameful:' Tech workers on Y Combinator CEO Garry Tan's rant
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
I felt like they were trolling… super fancy whiskey and then sparkling white wine that you pick up at Lucky on sale.
> super fancy whiskey and then sparkling white wine that you pick up at Lucky on sale. Off the shelf Macallan and Balvenie bottles from his photo is what some Eastern European owner of chain of car repair shops would buy in duty free airport store when going to his annual Turkey or Egypt vacation, definitely not a "super fancy whisky" and a bad value for money.
Hilariously specific person you invented there, but I'd not sneer at someone offering me a glass of what appears to be a Balvenie that itself is old enough to drink. I happen to have a 12 year old version of that bottle but it wasn't even expensive enough to fuss over.