Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group • Hacker News Board

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#121

Post by madeofpalk » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:47 PM UTC

save_ferris wrote: post #113

txcwpalpha wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the guilt by association card Are we reading the same article? If anything this article seems like a submarine PR puff piece to me, made to increase the image of Beto by making him seem "cool" and "hip" by associating him with the typically-seen-as-sexy "hacker" scene. This article is very similar to the pro-Beto stuff that was all over…

From the article: Still, it’s unclear whether the United States is ready for a presidential contender who, as a teenager, stole long-distance phone service for his dial-up modem, wrote a murder fantasy in which the narrator drives over children on the street, and mused about a society without money. This doesn't read as very pro-Beto to me.

It's unclear why the author of the article is unsure what type of president the US is ready for, right after they elected Donald Trump.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#122

Post by 0xffff2 » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:48 PM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #67

merlincorey wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, good point! As an independent I don't participate in primaries typically.

You should; lack of moderate voices in primaries only helps fringe candidates.

Plenty of people want nothing to do with either major political party, even as a "moderate".

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#123

Post by cazum » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:48 PM UTC

So what?

If anything all this does is show that being an old school hacker doesn't prevent you from becoming an ineffectual small-r-republican with a donkey pin

https://www.vox.com/policy-and-politics/2018/12/21/18150359/...

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#124

Post by txcwpalpha » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:48 PM UTC

dmos62 wrote: post #94

busterarm wrote: post #79

Having been involved in the community for most of my life, my very first thought was "oh that's cool he's one of us" and then I remembered that historically hackers have been phenomenally bad people to give any kind of real power to.

> historically hackers have been phenomenally bad people to give any kind of real power to Do you have any examples?

Paul Leroux comes to mind. It also really depends on who you consider to be a "hacker". To some people, Zuckerberg fits the description (though he is a different type of hacker, moreso the "hacker" of "Hacker News"), and I think most would agree he would be a terrible politician.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#125

Post by smhenderson » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:48 PM UTC

tantalor wrote: post #67

merlincorey wrote: post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ah, good point! As an independent I don't participate in primaries typically.

You should; lack of moderate voices in primaries only helps fringe candidates.

In some states, like PA where I live, you have to be registered with one party or the other to vote in primaries. I changed my registration from independent recently due to this. There is talk of legislation to change it but I'm not sure of it's current status.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#126

Post by smacktoward » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:48 PM UTC

LMYahooTFY wrote: post #66

microcolonel wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Unfortunately, he doesn't appear to have any actual policy platform related to the presidential run; at least, the other day when I visited the site I saw only merchandising.

Is he late in this sort of thing? Is it typical for candidates to have their own platforms put forth outside of the incumbent party platforms by this point?

They don't necessarily have an entire platform fleshed out, but they usually have one or two Big Ideas that (in theory, anyway) motivated them to run.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#127

Post by txcwpalpha » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:50 PM UTC

save_ferris wrote: post #113

txcwpalpha wrote: post #101

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>it's trying to make things sound more nefarious than they were, and it's playing the guilt by association card Are we reading the same article? If anything this article seems like a submarine PR puff piece to me, made to increase the image of Beto by making him seem "cool" and "hip" by associating him with the typically-seen-as-sexy "hacker" scene. This article is very similar to the pro-Beto stuff that was all over…

From the article: Still, it’s unclear whether the United States is ready for a presidential contender who, as a teenager, stole long-distance phone service for his dial-up modem, wrote a murder fantasy in which the narrator drives over children on the street, and mused about a society without money. This doesn't read as very pro-Beto to me.

A single sentence in an otherwise glamorizing and embellishing article does not a anti-Beto piece make.

That sentence doesn't even read as not pro-Beto to me, either. It's more of a neutral "this guy is really cool, but is he cool enough?" rhetorical.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#128

Post by velcrovan » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:50 PM UTC

gaze wrote: post #73

Why are all the articles about Beto about how cool and antiestablishment he is? Just absolutely nothing about what he really intends to do, how he intends to do it, and most importantly, how do we reconcile his conservative voting record with this contrary image he presents?

For real. Dude sided with republicans against his own party even though he was in a solidly blue district. Even campaigned all over the state for a republican!

I love what he did for downballot dems in 2016 and he had that great speech on youtube. But c'mon. Mr GOP Lovefest is not who we need in 2020.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#129

Post by Deinos » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:50 PM UTC

busterarm wrote: post #79

Having been involved in the community for most of my life, my very first thought was "oh that's cool he's one of us" and then I remembered that historically hackers have been phenomenally bad people to give any kind of real power to.

Feels like it would be no worse than the current group of morally bankrupt, easily bribed, self-centered politicians in power.

Re: Beto O'Rourke's membership in America's oldest hacking group

#130

Post by dexen » Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 4:50 PM UTC

gaze wrote: post #73

Why are all the articles about Beto about how cool and antiestablishment he is? Just absolutely nothing about what he really intends to do, how he intends to do it, and most importantly, how do we reconcile his conservative voting record with this contrary image he presents?

Somebody is still running Beto's campaign to the old (Clinton/Bush era) standard of use the media to build up brand and brand.

Meanwhile there is a crop of new-style politicians, all over the spectrum, that run via the new (AOC/Trump era) standard of use the social media+memes to build up brand and support.