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A Statement About Mahbod’s Annotations on Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto

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41–50 of 132 posts

Re: A Statement About Mahbod’s Annotations on Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto

#41
post #12

Who are RapGenius' investors? Who is bankrolling these people?

Andreessen Horowitz, to the tune of $15M. Rap Genius was also a part of YC S11. http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/03/andreessen-horowitz-iinvest... http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/rap-genius

The same people who bankroll(ed) GitHub. This is my shocked face.

Re: A Statement About Mahbod’s Annotations on Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto

#42

Personally, I think this is a long time coming. Like, Tom, I have nothing but respect for Maboo, but I think many, many people have raised the point that his, for lack of a better word, "antics" are holding the site back. I know a lot of people in the HN community have been sharply critical of him, and for good reason. Maybe that's the main driver here, and Maboo's absolutely inappropriate response is the catalyst.

[deleted]

Re: A Statement About Mahbod’s Annotations on Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto

#44
post #31

I can appreciate RG's leadership having the self-awareness to see the need to make an Adult Decision in this case, but I think it's probably a mistake for them to continue hosting the Rodgers diary. Contrary to Moghadam's comments, the diary is not particularly well-written. It's long, repetitive, weirdly detailed (the author recounts meals eaten years ago), and studded with evidence of psychopathy. RG's style of ann…

> studded with evidence of psychopathy

Very curious - what are the stylistic signatures of psycopathy?

Re: A Statement About Mahbod’s Annotations on Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto

#45
post #31

I can appreciate RG's leadership having the self-awareness to see the need to make an Adult Decision in this case, but I think it's probably a mistake for them to continue hosting the Rodgers diary. Contrary to Moghadam's comments, the diary is not particularly well-written. It's long, repetitive, weirdly detailed (the author recounts meals eaten years ago), and studded with evidence of psychopathy. RG's style of ann…

As someone who was on the forums when the decision was made, I can give you some of the background. Last February, News Genius transcribed and annotated the Dorner manifesto, and got a lot of positive press. You can see the page at http://news.rapgenius.com/Christopher-dorner-manifesto-annot... and the press from Forbes at http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2013/02/13/christoph... The thought was very similar in…

There was a lot of confused attention surrounding the Dorner incident, in which a disgruntled former LAPD officer rationalized his carefully-planned stalking and murder of the daughter of an LAPD captain who had been partially responsible for his termination.

Part of that attention was due to a Rambo narrative that accompanied Dorner due to his military experience and the fashion in which he was (briefly) believed to be engaging Southern California police officers (no doubt this narrative was abetted by the 24/7 news cycle). Part of it was due to the style in which he wrote his manifesto. And certainly part of it was the fact that his grievances confirmed a lot of the (probably accurate) biases people have about the LAPD.

All that is a prelude to the argument that the annotations on the Dorner "manifesto" do not in fact show RG at its best. Like the Rodgers incident, the Dorner incident is tremendously sad. It was not an armed struggled between a wronged former officer and the police establishment; it was a manhunt that followed the cold-blooded murder of an innocent woman and her fiance. But you might not get that impression from clicking through the animated GIFs, lyrical references, and amplified exposition of Dorner's complaints in the annotations on the site.

Again, I think this isn't so much a problem with reading and studying the output of the mentally ill, but instead with the idea of doing that on a site that encourages random anonymous people to riff off of and respond to that output. It has the effect of turning an artifact of illness and tragedy into popular culture, which to me demeans the site almost as much as the victims.

Re: A Statement About Mahbod’s Annotations on Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto

#46
post #31

I can appreciate RG's leadership having the self-awareness to see the need to make an Adult Decision in this case, but I think it's probably a mistake for them to continue hosting the Rodgers diary. Contrary to Moghadam's comments, the diary is not particularly well-written. It's long, repetitive, weirdly detailed (the author recounts meals eaten years ago), and studded with evidence of psychopathy. RG's style of ann…

> studded with evidence of psychopathy Very curious - what are the stylistic signatures of psycopathy?

Do another skim read through the diary and notice all the times he unabashedly confirms his belief that other human beings in his life exist to serve his interests. It's practically a motif. He doesn't merely seem upset that women won't acknowledge him, but rather that anyone he interacts with has any agency at all --- his father, his mother, his friends, his roommates.

Re: A Statement About Mahbod’s Annotations on Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto

#48
post #40
post #31

I can appreciate RG's leadership having the self-awareness to see the need to make an Adult Decision in this case, but I think it's probably a mistake for them to continue hosting the Rodgers diary. Contrary to Moghadam's comments, the diary is not particularly well-written. It's long, repetitive, weirdly detailed (the author recounts meals eaten years ago), and studded with evidence of psychopathy. RG's style of ann…

the diary is not particularly well-written depends on your standards. He's not a professional author but I think he's probably better than your average college grad. studded with evidence of psychopathy genuinely interested. could you point to some of these. I've been skimming it and haven't really seen that. in fact, this struck me as empathetic James’s mother, Kim Ellis, had just passed away from breast cancer. I c…

At various points, the author describes in detail how he wanted to torture and murder any loving couple because it offended him so much. Along with his bizarre descriptions of a sexless utopia where all women are enslaved and forced to be artificially inseminated to procreate.

Re: A Statement About Mahbod’s Annotations on Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto

#49
post #40
post #31

I can appreciate RG's leadership having the self-awareness to see the need to make an Adult Decision in this case, but I think it's probably a mistake for them to continue hosting the Rodgers diary. Contrary to Moghadam's comments, the diary is not particularly well-written. It's long, repetitive, weirdly detailed (the author recounts meals eaten years ago), and studded with evidence of psychopathy. RG's style of ann…

the diary is not particularly well-written depends on your standards. He's not a professional author but I think he's probably better than your average college grad. studded with evidence of psychopathy genuinely interested. could you point to some of these. I've been skimming it and haven't really seen that. in fact, this struck me as empathetic James’s mother, Kim Ellis, had just passed away from breast cancer. I c…

Even if we stipulate that every paragraph in the diary should be taken at face value, psychopathy is not defined simply as the absence of empathy.

Re: A Statement About Mahbod’s Annotations on Elliot Rodger’s Manifesto

#50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Andreessen Horowitz, to the tune of $15M. Rap Genius was also a part of YC S11. http://techcrunch.com/2012/10/03/andreessen-horowitz-iinvest... http://www.crunchbase.com/organization/rap-genius

The same people who bankroll(ed) GitHub. This is my shocked face.

That is a tired, cheap, superficial point that is beneath this site. If you want to build a case against valley startup culture --- and there sure are cases to be made --- try to do it without creating a caricature of everyone else who has concerns as well.
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