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

Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

theatlantic.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

111–120 of 268 posts

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#111

Post by chollida1 »

mrob wrote: post #2

The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. They can choose what's painted on the side, but the name depends only on what people call it. If enough people call it Boaty McBoatface its name really is Boaty McBoatface. If your job depends on calling it the government's preferred name then subtly alter the timing of your speech to make it…

> The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name.

This is good advice. In Toronto we have a baseball stadium called the Rogers Center (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rogers_Centre). It was originally called the SkyDome but it was bought by a company called Rogers and renamed.

Everyone still refers to it as the Skydome. Corporate branding be damned:)

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#112

Post by jessaustin »

joeyspn wrote: post #36
geromek wrote: post #11

The story is more complex than the article says. A Spanish forum (one of the top-40 more visited sites in Spain) voted massively the name "Blas de Lezo" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blas_de_Lezo ) a Spanish admiral who in 1741 defeated a British Army far bigger than his own one. After gaining the #1 position the organization decided to withdraw the name from the polling, causing more controversy about this digital p…

Certainly one of the funniest stories to pop-up in the interwebs during the last year.. > A band of Spanish net buccaneers has mounted a determined incursion into Her Maj's territorial cyberwaters by demanding that Blighty's forthcoming Royal Research Ship be named the RRS Blas de Lezo, in honour of the man who administered the British a serious military shoeing during the War of Jenkins' Ear. http://www.theregister.…

TIL there was a War of Jenkins' Ear...

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#115

Post by toyg »

OvidNaso wrote: post #95
toyg wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Really seems that SCIENCE does a lot better in the public eye at the moment when it goes populist rather than cloistered Except vaccines. And chemtrails. And moon landings. And and and... I'm a populist by nature but let's not get carried away here.

All of those viewpoints you alude to are extremely fringe movements and are in no way populist.

You would be surprised. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/health/news/9991988/40000-ch...

These movements share a message: "the man is screwing us little people". That's a populist message, which it's why they're much more popular than their actual craziness would otherwise grant.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#116

Post by jshelly »

mrob wrote: post #2

The solution is simple. Continue calling the boat Boaty McBoatface. Ignore all references to the government's preferred name. They can choose what's painted on the side, but the name depends only on what people call it. If enough people call it Boaty McBoatface its name really is Boaty McBoatface. If your job depends on calling it the government's preferred name then subtly alter the timing of your speech to make it…

The marketing opportunities alone are insane. I am amazed that they are turning down the name. This ship had the opportunity to be as well known as the Titanic (but for better reasons)

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#118

Post by pete622 »

rootlocus wrote: post #19
snitko wrote: post #4

This small example shows the true nature of any democratic government: if you vote the way they don't like, they will not submit to it. Voting is useless.

This is a gross simplification. Internet trolling and mockery doesn't really represent the will of the people.

There's a chance you might be misjudging "the people."

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#119

Post by hartpuff »

Doctor_Fegg wrote: post #106
DanBC wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If a choice was demanded of the whole population then Boaty McBoatface would never have won. If you force British people to vote then Boaty McBoatface would probably win, because british people can be surprisingly bloody minded. And boaty mcboatface is the polite version, you'd have a number of people writing Cunty McCuntyCunt on the form.

Exactly. It's the same bloody-mindedness that got 'Killing in the Name' - essentially the phrase "---k you I won't do what you tell me" shouted repeatedly - to No 1 at Christmas as a reaction against the X Factor manufactured idol hype. (And almost got 'Ding dong, the witch is dead' to No 1 after Thatcher's death...)

Or God Save The Queen to number "two" to mark Lizzy's Silver Jubilee. Mind you, that was also a decent song.

Re: Boaty McBoatface and the False Promise of Democracy

#120

Post by josteink »

vidarh wrote: post #99
takno wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be cultural thing, but in the UK tech scene at least even if people are flexible about pepperoni it's mostly because there is a large and delicious range of meat-based pizzas to split the vote. The representative who orders just vegetarian pizza clearly isn't thinking in terms of re-election.

The rep who orders just vegetarian pizza will have a bloody revolution on their hands. I have pretty much three criteria for pizza selection: No anchovies, no pine apple, and at least one form of meat.

Seconding (thirding?) this. Where I work, any rep who orders a group of mostly meat-eaters vegetarian food because the group has a single or a few vegetarians too, will be seen as making a declaration of war.

I've had people walk out of company dinners (to get "real" food) due to inconsiderate behaviour like this, from supposedly "tolerant" managers. Needless to say, such incidents are seldom repeated.

And I say inconsiderate, because that's what such behaviour constitutes as in my cultural climate.

Post reply on HN