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

Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

komonews.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 66 posts

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#41

Post by BryantD »

beebmam wrote: post #35
BryantD wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the web page linked in another comment is authentic, the attacker was in a very bad mental state. I don’t think we can completely rule out previous contact, and the attacker was unhappy with his team members, but random chance also seems possible. I lean towards authentic because a) the journal document is much too long to have been produced quickly, b) the text isn’t lifted from other sources, and c) the website…

Making Holocaust video games isn't exactly non-extremist.

This one is fairly tasteless but it’s not clear to me whether or not it’s extremist. If the description said you were chasing Anne Frank down, that would be one thing. As is, it’s explicitly framed as pushing the limits of free speech which strikes me as a dumb kid thought exercise.

And it wasn’t important enough for him to list on the standalone games pages.

Now, Prophet Shooter is unambiguously anti-religious, so maybe there’s something there? And he’s got a Trump parody game. I’m not 100% sure here, just leaning against it. It’s also certainly true that sometimes extremism is the result of mental illness looking for some kind of framework to cling to.

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#42

Post by jldugger »

Swenrekcah wrote: post #39
popcalc wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It’s easy to say now that this was a sign of mental illness, but that’s confirmation bias. Plenty of people have done or said insensitive stuff, especially when young, without being violent or mentally ill. Also we don’t really know anything about this particular case. The other option you mention is they perhaps grew up in a red state? Do you suggest this as a legitimate reason for firing a person?

> Do you suggest this as a legitimate reason for firing a person?

No, its slandering red states by suggesting that endorsing Hitler is okay there.

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#43

Post by BryantD »

PKop wrote: post #23
trynewideas wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Withdrawn; apologies.

I don't think there's anything wrong with identifying the suspect and learning information about them. Why not?

I think that it’s bad to amplify extremist views (see the number of shooters who glorify the Christchurch killer). In this case I don’t think that’s a huge risk, though.

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#44

Post by dgacmu »

PKop wrote: post #23
trynewideas wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Withdrawn; apologies.

I don't think there's anything wrong with identifying the suspect and learning information about them. Why not?

I believe the idea is to prevent the perpetrators of such crimes from benefitting from the publicity caused by their crime. There's been a big movement to try to get news organizations to focus more on the victims of crimes.

(I have no personal expertise to judge whether this is an effective approach or not. Just expressing what I suspect may be the reasoning.)

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#45

Post by zozbot234 »

BryantD wrote: post #41
beebmam wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making Holocaust video games isn't exactly non-extremist.

This one is fairly tasteless but it’s not clear to me whether or not it’s extremist. If the description said you were chasing Anne Frank down, that would be one thing. As is, it’s explicitly framed as pushing the limits of free speech which strikes me as a dumb kid thought exercise. And it wasn’t important enough for him to list on the standalone games pages. Now, Prophet Shooter is unambiguously anti-religious, so m…

Making an Anne Frank game while also praising "Adolf Hitler's bolstering of Nazi Germany in the 1930's" is pretty unambiguous, I'd say. Nothing that a random 8chan user couldn't have come up with "for the lulz" of course, but that website has also been associated with violent acts.

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#46

Post by popcalc »

Swenrekcah wrote: post #39
popcalc wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

It’s easy to say now that this was a sign of mental illness, but that’s confirmation bias. Plenty of people have done or said insensitive stuff, especially when young, without being violent or mentally ill. Also we don’t really know anything about this particular case. The other option you mention is they perhaps grew up in a red state? Do you suggest this as a legitimate reason for firing a person?

>Plenty of people have done or said insensitive stuff, especially when young, without being violent or mentally ill. Also we don’t really know anything about this particular case.

What differentiates boys like this from plain bigots is they think they can put it next to their resume. A gut feeling is all you need to tell. It's the "quiet kid in class" energy.

>The other option you mention is they perhaps grew up in a red state? Do you suggest this as a legitimate reason for firing a person?

I was suggesting that being around accepted hate may make one feel more comfortable putting this thing out there.

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#47

Post by cld8483 »

popcalc wrote: post #34
Swenrekcah wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honest question: Besides the game being being distasteful, what is it about the game that requires they should have been fired or not hired?

[flagged]

> Or just live in a red state?

Heh, in red states where unconditional support for Israel among white evangelical protestants is more popular than in the Jewish-American community itself? Where every other car seems to have a bumper sticker featuring the Israeli and American flag depicted together in unison? Hating Jewish people is very fringe in any American state, the mainstream will ostracize you for it anywhere in the country. Obviously so in blue states, but also in red states as well. Speaking out against Israel is a good way to get yourself banned from most red state businesses, and as many red states as blue states have passed anti-BDS laws.

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#48

Post by cld8483 »

popcalc wrote: post #46
Swenrekcah wrote: post #39

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It’s easy to say now that this was a sign of mental illness, but that’s confirmation bias. Plenty of people have done or said insensitive stuff, especially when young, without being violent or mentally ill. Also we don’t really know anything about this particular case. The other option you mention is they perhaps grew up in a red state? Do you suggest this as a legitimate reason for firing a person?

>Plenty of people have done or said insensitive stuff, especially when young, without being violent or mentally ill. Also we don’t really know anything about this particular case. What differentiates boys like this from plain bigots is they think they can put it next to their resume. A gut feeling is all you need to tell. It's the "quiet kid in class" energy. >The other option you mention is they perhaps grew up in a…

> What differentiates boys like this from plain bigots is they think they can put it next to their resume.

Yes, if they hand you the evidence then it should be obvious.

> A gut feeling is all you need to tell. It's the "quiet kid in class" energy.

If they handed you the evidence, then you don't need a "gut feeling", which is nothing more than a manifestation of your personal biases.

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#49

Post by tptacek »

BryantD wrote: post #41
beebmam wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Making Holocaust video games isn't exactly non-extremist.

This one is fairly tasteless but it’s not clear to me whether or not it’s extremist. If the description said you were chasing Anne Frank down, that would be one thing. As is, it’s explicitly framed as pushing the limits of free speech which strikes me as a dumb kid thought exercise. And it wasn’t important enough for him to list on the standalone games pages. Now, Prophet Shooter is unambiguously anti-religious, so m…

This one is fairly tasteless but it’s not clear to me whether or not it’s extremist

Recalibrate. It's overt.

This person is gravely mentally ill, though.

Re: Suspect, victim in Redmond stabbing both worked at Microsoft

#50

Post by me_again »

l_theanine wrote: post #4

I find it unlikely that somebody randomly shanks someone a dozen times just because of stress, in a workplace environment. Surely these two gentleman either knew each other and something had happened, OR the attacker knew the victim and there was some sort of issue, romantic or something like that to where he would've been angry enough to try and kill this other man. Of course Microsoft is going to say "Oh, they didn…

If Microsoft has made any statement at all, it's not linked or quoted in the article.

Also this incident occurred next to a 4-lane public street, not exactly a workplace environment - Microsoft's campus is not a secluded enclave.

Post reply on HN