There are people actively insinuating in this thread that Sam should be...killed, and they are still up. Very odd moderation, surely there is a better way to flag these things.
I'd like to see specific links.
Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
571–580 of 1001 posts
Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
#572Sounds like this was just a crazy guy upset at OpenAI. Not great but an isolated incident. That said… is anyone going to be surprised when the laid off masses torch a data center or worse? IMO, it’s only a matter of time before we see organized anti-AI terrorism too. When you have people out there saying “AI will kill us all” then it’s easy to justify using violence to stop that outcome.
Related:
"A 29-year-old employee, identified as Chamel Abdulkarim, was arrested for allegedly starting a massive six-alarm fire that destroyed a Kimberly-Clark sanitary paper warehouse in Ontario, California, on April 7, 2026."
He said "All you had to do was pay us enough to live"
And this was caused not by a homeless or unemployed.
Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
#573[flagged]
"Violence like this is not the answer. However,"
Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
#574[flagged]
Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
#575I don't think I've ever seen a thread this bad on Hacker News*. The number of commenters justifying violence, or saying they "don't condone violence" and then doing exactly that, is sickening and makes me want to find something else to do with my life—something as far away from this as I can get. I feel ashamed of this community.
* Edit: It would have been clearer to say "I've never seen a mob dynamic this bad on Hacker News", since that is the type of bad thread I was talking about. (Obviously there are lots of other kinds of bad thread.) Alas, that didn't occur to me in the moment, and it led to various misunderstandings.
If you're wondering why I called this a "mob dynamic" it's because comments like the following were dominating the thread when I originally ran across it (but in order to read these, you'll need to have 'showdead' turned on in your profile.):
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47727099
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47726427
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47725722
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47725717
I'm pretty calloused after years of doing this job, but seeing so many comments openly exulting in, and egging on, violence against a specific person on Hacker News was deeply shocking to me.
Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
#576This article and discussion appear to have been manually delisted from the News rankings.
Evidently, even HN could only keep up the pretense that tech development is amoral and apolitical for so long.
Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
#577This article and discussion appear to have been manually delisted from the News rankings. Evidently, even HN could only keep up the pretense that tech development is amoral and apolitical for so long.
It hasn't been "manually delisted" - it has been rightfully flagged by users, plus set off the flamewar detector, plus downweighted by moderators, the same way we would downweight any other thread that violates the values of this site so shamefully. Hacker News is not a site for mobs.
Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
#578I've skimmed the thread here and I am now seriously considering leaving HN for the first time in about 15 years. Here are some quotes from what used to be a pretty interesting and thoughtful community: > Ah, the Elon manoeuvre: trying to make would-be assassins hesitate by using your own child as a shield. > the words and narratives that Sam Altman promoted caused so much fear and uncertainty and anger that someone t…
[deleted]
Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
#579This article and discussion appear to have been manually delisted from the News rankings. Evidently, even HN could only keep up the pretense that tech development is amoral and apolitical for so long.
It hasn't been "manually delisted" - it has been rightfully flagged by users, plus set off the flamewar detector, plus downweighted by moderators, the same way we would downweight any other thread that violates the values of this site so shamefully. Hacker News is not a site for mobs.
[deleted]
Re: Sam Altman's response to Molotov cocktail incident
#580[flagged]
> I hope the worst for sam and his family.
WTF? You can't post this viciously to HN, no matter who it is you're being vicious towards.
Normally I would ban any account that posted like this, but this thread is a mob and mobs have a deranging effect on people. So I'm going to cut you some slack and not ban you. Just please don't do anything like this on HN again.