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

What it's like to be cancelled

noahbradley.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

261–270 of 613 posts

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#261

Post by MeinBlutIstBlau »

muglug wrote: post #187
TX0098812 wrote: post #169

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You missed the point. While the entire thread talk about how people can easily accuse others on the internet without evidence, someone posts a link containing accusations and we're supposed to automatically assume it's true. But hey, now some guy on hacker news says his friend witnessed it...

Sure, I will ask my friend if he wants to write a sworn affidavit and have it notarised. But until then you're just going to have to trust that there are hundreds of people who witnessed Spacey's behaviour.

I can do that too for having a mushroom induced trip about being abducted by aliens. Still doesn't make it true and I left out the part that I was tripping on mushrooms but forgot.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#262

Post by daenz »

Filligree wrote: post #205
daenz wrote: post #43

I just assume at some point in my life, if I achieve my dreams, I'm going to get cancelled. If you have big aspirations, you should assume this too. Start preparing mentally for it.

Why bother? It’s much easier not trying for anything like that. You can live a comfortable life without ever trying to make waves. Leave politics to the psychopaths.

You don't have to go into politics to be cancelled. You just need any kind of notoriety.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#263

Post by lovecg »

xyzzy_plugh wrote: post #214
lovecg wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think about cases like this one? https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/mount-allison-s... An immigrant _tenured_ professor in Canada got suspended for saying that Canada is not racist on her blog. Was she being a dick? Does she deserve the “consequences”? At what point do we stop saying “oh these are isolated incidents and not a trend”?

As a Canadian, yeah that's a pretty awful thing to say. Canada is definitely racist -- and I'd go so far as to say that it's safe to assume that everywhere and everyone is racist to some extent. Supporting the idea that you (individual, organization, country, whatever) are not racist makes it convenient to ignore efforts to combat racism ("why should we combat racism when there isn't any") which should be universally…

If you don’t mind me asking, did you grow up in Canada? When you’re saying that Canada is racist do you have any experiences of living in other countries to compare with? Can you point out specific examples of Canada being a racist country? Nowhere is perfect, but allow me to say that Canada (and even the US for that matter) are vastly less racist compared to many places. I can see someone who grew up with different experiences be bewildered by the assertion.

Do you not find it ironic that an immigrant non-white professor is being criticized by mostly white Canadians for her views and different experiences? Actually yeah maybe Canada is racist after all.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#264

Post by chmod600 »

A reminder that it's OK to not take sides and just support your friends. Maybe they did something bad, but we all make some serious errors in judgement.

One of my friends was not cancelled but shunned by a lot of people. Not sure exactly why; it was probably a lot of minor stuff that added up.

I just asked him straight: "did you do anything bad enough that I shouldn't be friends with you?". He said "no" and we moved on.

Cancelling or shunning is usually not the right punishment even if someone does something pretty bad. Unless someone who is a cultural model (e.g. CEO), and just can't do their job any more, cancelling doesn't really solve a problem. It just makes people hypersensitive, politically-correct, and quiet. That's not a healthy environment.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#265

Post by jollybean »

These pile-ons have transformed journalists from 'news people' who might have an opinion now and again - to 'mob leaders who think they are in control and have moral impetus'.

Couple that with an actually dangerous president (that is not a political statement), and a cop who murders someone in plain daylight, with an underlying pandemic and you have 3 of the dark horsemen right there.

I believe Dorsey revels in this part of it and I don't like him for that. Zuck seems to be more interested in just getting people to watch ads, which is bad, but not the same thing.

I grew up respecting journalism, and I think it's an important industry, like the invisible 5th pillar of government ... but I just assume everything I read is hugely biased to the point of lacking in credibility.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#266

Post by tester756 »

FemmeAndroid wrote: post #221

I cannot imagine a colleague writing the following and not being fired, and effectively outcast from most employers in my industry, especially when it’s happening at industry events: > I was terrible to women. > I preyed on them. I ceaselessly hit on them. I pressured them into sex. I got too drunk and did all manner of dumb things. Yes, I was one of those shitty, creepy sexual predators you hear about. I work in a f…

but where does this quote comes from?

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#267

Post by newobj »

saul_goodman wrote: post #216
prepend wrote: post #11

I think the biggest problem with Twitter is that we can’t determine a denominator. Twitter knows, but we don’t know. 100 people tweeting about how this guy is bad might be indicative of a general consensus or might just be 100 people out of a billion Twitter users. People then interpret it as general consensus and pile on. We know the numerator but since we don’t know the denominator of people who didn’t comment, or…

[flagged]

Your entire post is a virtue signal

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#268

Post by newbie789 »

jandrese wrote: post #245
newbie789 wrote: post #196

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I find it a little odd that in the original apology he refers to himself as a sexual predator but in this blog post he was a “womaniz[er]”. The term womanizer generally refers to people that have lots of sexual encounters with different women, and has a strong connotation of “I’m very attractive to the opposite sex and am sometimes careless about which sexual advances I accept” “Sexual predator” on the other hand ind…

The term Sexual Predator has been expanded to cover a lot more in that circle. It's similar to how anybody who has sex with a celebrity is technically raped because of the power difference. It's impossible to give consent when your partner is more important than you are. You might think this sounds insane, but it's a real thing: https://www.nsvrc.org/i-ask-how-power-impacts-consent The handouts on here handwave the i…

From his apology:

“I preyed on them. I ceaselessly hit on them. I pressured them into sex. I got too drunk and did all manner of dumb things. Yes, I was one of those shitty, creepy sexual predators you hear about.”

I do not get the impression that he apologized for having sex with people while also being guilty of being prominent in his industry. I’m not entirely clear how “any sex with a celebrity is rape” is a salient point here.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#269

Post by reedf1 »

noahbradley wrote: post #215
defaultname wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The original complaint claimed that he was a groper. That's sexual harassment. It's illegal. It's incredibly toxic and creepy , and people who do it are out of touch cretins who make everything worse. Citing that no one officially lodged a criminal complaint isn't a counterpoint. Most sexual assault isn't pursued. Serial creeps are plying their trade right now. But yeah, if he's associated with a brand and he's going…

I never groped anyone.

Hey man - be careful reading stuff alright? Probably best to just take a breather from reading stuff about yourself, it can't feel good. Humans weren't designed to be yelled at by more people than you can fit in a room.

Re: What it's like to be cancelled

#270

Post by throwaway111999 »

tw04 wrote: post #247
throwaway111999 wrote: post #225

I'm terrified of interacting with female coworkers. I don't have a "-ist" bone in my body. When I review code, I only see the code and not the person that wrote it. When I pick a team, I look at engineering ability and nothing else. I abhor discriminatory behavior and would be the first to put my career on the line to defend someone getting discriminated against. And of course I keep anything sexual FAR FAR FAAAR out…

Or you know, just don't be a creep and treat women like human beings and you'll be fine? If you're giving negative feedback because they did something wrong/substandard work, you document it and move on. If there are questions later, you refer back. I've literally never had this be a problem. I'm not sure why talking about your personal life would be grounds for issues unless you decided to talk about your bedroom, p…

> Or you know, just don't be a creep and treat women like human beings and you'll be fine?

You don't understand.

When I interact with people, I don't see race/color/age/sex. I'm just focused on the problem at hand. I also have a deep compassion for people in general.

What I'm worried about is saying or doing the wrong thing due to a lapse in judgement in the moment.

I'll give you an example. I love fashion. At a previous company it was all guys. When a guy came to work and was wearing new shoes, I'd notice, and compliment the shoes. Or if they were wearing a new shirt I might say that it "brings out your X". I'm straight so there's nothing sexual here. I just think fashion is cool. It's a hobby of mine.

Making any comments about female coworker fashion terrifies me. What if I say something that's perceived as a sexual advance? Don't forget that men often disguise sexual advances as seemingly innocent compliments. It's a big gray area.

> If you're giving negative feedback because they did something wrong/substandard work, you document it and move on. If there are questions later, you refer back. I've literally never had this be a problem.

Maybe I wasn't clear in my post, but my point is that I have an irrational fear.

I'd much rather sacrifice a little bit of professional perception of skill to not mess around in an area I'm very paranoid about.

> I'm not sure why talking about your personal life would be grounds for issues unless you decided to talk about your bedroom, politics, or religion. "I went hiking on X trail this weekend, it was pretty cool" isn't going to get you called into HR.

Irrationally, I worry that I'll get to comfortable and mention something that, to me, is obviously not "-ist" but comes off that way.

Post reply on HN