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Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

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Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#161

Post by jacquesm »

django34211 wrote: post #153
[deleted] wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

"Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills." ~Ed Sounds like Ed was a bit harsh on someone who was going through allot of trouble. The comment was excessively cruel. Not to mention it was the top comment, which must of added large dosage of salt on an already wounded soul. So he(Ed) rightfully deserves any criticism thrown at him. It's such a tool bag comment, Ed should apologize…

(1) hindsight is 20-20

(2) the facts as we know then today were not readily apparent back then (even to those that were actively seeking those facts)

(3) Ed has a longstanding history of compassion and care

(4) mistakes were made, but there is nobody to apologise to.

Can we please stop the mobbing? Thanks.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#162

Post by derleth »

woah wrote: post #140
[deleted] wrote: post #104

[deleted]

He certainly seemed to support the outrageous, overreaching prosecution that Aaron was facing. "Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills." This sounds a lot like "screw you, what you did is wrong, and you should quit whining about it." "man up" clearly implies that Ed Weissman feels that going up against the massive US justice system to allow people without university affiliatio…

> Aaron should man up

And now we see the consequences of our society's sexism.

Nobody tells women to "man up".

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#164

Post by blhack »

[deleted] wrote: post #104

[deleted]

I've been incredibly vocal about my stance on depression here on HN in the past, specifically that saying things like "man up" is absurd.

Depression, like every other disease on the planet, is not something you "man up" through. It's a disease that happens to manifest itself in the same places that personality does. To a casual, uninformed observer, depression is a choice of behavior.

It isn't. You don't get depression from weakness in the same way that you don't get cancer from weakness.

Depression also kills more people per year than cancer does.

Cancer about 20,000 -- depression about 30,000.

(Highly relevant lecture by a very brilliant neuroscientist: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NOAgplgTxfc)

--

That said, Ed Weissman made an inappropriate comment. Every single person here, including me, has made inappropriate comments in the past.

Let's not start the pitchforks and torches just yet, guys.

He who is without sin, and all that.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#165

Post by Mz »

grandalf wrote: post #110

This is TechCrunch playing the role of Jerry Springer. In spite of the way many interest groups are trying to make Aaron's suicide into a symbol, the fact is that suicide is simply a symptom of mental illness, and nothing else . Unless we have reason to believe otherwise, most of us assume that those whose actions/views we discuss on HN are of normal (average) mental health. So while Aaron's death is jarring, it's th…

I attempted suicide at age 17. I am very clear it was due to social and physical factors, not mental illness. I blogged about that yesterday. I doubt you care, but this accusation of "he was merely mentally ill, the way he was being treated by people doesn't matter" is something I think is pure evil and merely an excuse to say "not my problem" and cover your ass.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#166

Post by amputect »

[deleted] wrote: post #104

[deleted]

You're right; his lazy, incurious dismissal of the news article didn't make Aaron kill himself. EVERYONE's lazy, incurious dismissal of the news article and the surrounding circumstances (Myself included; I am ashamed that when I read that article my {unposted} response was "not my problem, good luck dude"), taken in aggregate, made him kill himself.

Ed just has the bad luck to be the most widely upvoted person saying what a sizable majority of the readers here were thinking: "who gives a shit, man up"

Hacker culture has this incredibly harmful idea of perfect self-reliance, that makes it really hard for people to come out and ask for help. Genius ninja hacker wizards aren't supposed to cry. Brilliant wunderkind business masters aren't supposed to fail. People who are surprised that he killed himself so suddenly should remember that this wasn't sudden at all; he asked for help, and he was treated with derision and suspicion and more or less told to go fuck himself. And this is a relatively well-known and respected dude. Imagine how the average nerd/loner feels, seeing that example. "They wouldn't stand up for Aaron Swartz, why would they give a shit about me?" And the answer, every time, is "they wouldn't".

We should be better people, all of us, and this would be a really good time to start.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#167

Post by saraid216 »

django34211 wrote: post #153
[deleted] wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

"Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills." ~Ed Sounds like Ed was a bit harsh on someone who was going through allot of trouble. The comment was excessively cruel. Not to mention it was the top comment, which must of added large dosage of salt on an already wounded soul. So he(Ed) rightfully deserves any criticism thrown at him. It's such a tool bag comment, Ed should apologize…

And you'd never say something like that yourself, amirite?

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#168

Post by RegEx »

django34211 wrote: post #153
[deleted] wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[deleted]

"Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills." ~Ed Sounds like Ed was a bit harsh on someone who was going through allot of trouble. The comment was excessively cruel. Not to mention it was the top comment, which must of added large dosage of salt on an already wounded soul. So he(Ed) rightfully deserves any criticism thrown at him. It's such a tool bag comment, Ed should apologize…

And you sound like a drama queen. The severity was not conveyed. According to HN users in this thread, it couldn't be for whatever reasons. We didn't know the extent of the trouble. Sure, he was rude, and I don't like it when people are rude, but some people in this thread are making it sound like he pulled the fucking trigger. Give it a rest.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#169

Post by streblo »

[deleted] wrote: post #146
woah wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

He certainly seemed to support the outrageous, overreaching prosecution that Aaron was facing. "Aaron should man up, take responsibility for his actions, and pay his own bills." This sounds a lot like "screw you, what you did is wrong, and you should quit whining about it." "man up" clearly implies that Ed Weissman feels that going up against the massive US justice system to allow people without university affiliatio…

[deleted]

Really? "nothing of the sort"? That's what it seems to suggest.

Re: Aaron Swartz, Asking For Help, 119 Days Ago

#170

Post by amputect »

mindslight wrote: post #133
[deleted] wrote: post #104

[deleted]

Completely agreed. And as someone who strongly supported what Aaron did at the time (and thus disagreed with you, Ed, et al), this techcrunch "article" is still disgusting. This public singling out of one of us for ad impressions should be taken personally by every commenter here. I know it's the 3072nd time someone has said this, but techcrunch.com should just really be added to the spam blacklist. Unfortunately, fl…

I too disagree with a posted link, and therefore earnestly believe that it should be censored so nobody can see it.

Sincerely, the church of scientology

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