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

I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

lithub.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 187 posts

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#91

Post by briangray »

Dudhbbh3343 wrote: post #83
roughly wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The article’s worth a read, but no, I was just experiencing vicarious catharsis from the response.

So he's just mocking the melodramatic message of his colleague? As someone who's not that well read, I find his response nonsensical, so I imagine I'm missing a reference or two.

I may be reading too far into it, but I think he _is_ mocking his colleague by responding to questions with similar questions.

> Are your emotions pure?

Are you thinking through this with clear thought and emotion?

> Are your nerves adjustable?

Do you feel so strongly about this that it has affected you this whole time, since spring?

> How do you stand in relation to the potato?

Can you not support yourself? Are you as wellrounded or less so than a potato?

> Should it still be Constantinople?

Can the outcome not change even when history repeats itself?

The last one to me seems like the indicator that these questions are not nonsensical. As it is is direct reference to the colleague's question about history repeating itself and refers to a location which changed back and forth numerous times.

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#92

Post by [deleted] »

wizzwizz4 wrote: post #42
riehwvfbk wrote: post #13

This is amazing. I wonder, is one allowed to speak like this in the Bay Area, or would this mark you as a deplorable to the kind of people who erase racism by erasing race.

I understand why he chose to say it this way, and I'll probably be stealing "liberal racism" ( what a phrase: that's going in my pocketbook alongside "white guilt" and "racialise"), but this is the wrong way to say it to a Bay Area audience. You'd want to say something like "erasing representation to avoid confronting racism".

[deleted]

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#93

Post by et1337 »

Nition wrote: post #62
Jun8 wrote: post #2

This is a fantastic interview with Padgett Powell ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Padgett_Powell ), a writer of the Southern tradition. IMO, the two things that make it great ar how candid and fluid Powell's answers are and the hilariously Newspeak of the interviewer's questions. Powell was Don Barthelme's student, his analysis of Barthelme's main thrust here is worth the read alone. If you want to dig deeper on this…

It all kind of reaches an apotheosis when the interviewer makes the second big red pull quote one from their questions, instead of one from the author's answers. I couldn't believe it, I had to double check!

Wow that’s incredible. What a sentence too. Slides right through your brain without any meaning getting caught on it.

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#94

Post by lanternfish »

hotdogscout wrote: post #90
Dudhbbh3343 wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You and your link make reasonable arguments for capitalizing black, but I don't see any justification (other than to be contrary to supremacist groups) for not doing the same for white, which leaves it inconsistent with the naming of all other racial/ethnic groups.

Leftist activists circles have grievances with white people and this is a small token of revenge. Depersonifying white people. Asians don't get internally consistent treatment because of intersectionality. Are we really pretending it's a coincidence all the time? This naivety is rightfully never applied to right wing bigotry. I'm not white myself but I'm genuinely confused as to why this kind of blatant ethnic antago…

The actual critique - which is articulated in many places - is that "white" isn't an ethnic group with an actual cultural or racial lineage. Instead, "white" was created and exists as the dual to "colored" - a shifting category encompassing many ethnicities that describes their position in a set of power structures, historically colonialism. Consider that "whiteness" has changed considerably over the usage of the term, with many ethnicities (irish, italian) shifting into it as their position in American society (the cultural superpower of the time) changed.

To consider this further, shift the power structures and see how whiteness changes. Who is considered "white" in the historic USSR and contemporary ex-bloc states is radically different than the usage in America at the same time. This is even more complicated in places like Central or South America, India, and parts of Asia. I guarantee that - if you weren't versed with local power dynamics and colorism history - you wouldn't be able to classify who on the street is generally considered "white" in Buenos Aires.

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#95

Post by ryanlbrown »

Dudhbbh3343 wrote: post #86
boplicity wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be bizarre for you, but it is often a reasoned and thoughtful use of the word, meaningful in the context of a complex and consistent consideration of the general meaning and usage of words. I encourage you to consider and understand the perspectives of those who do capitalize the word. This serves as an introduction to some people's thinking: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php Note, th…

You and your link make reasonable arguments for capitalizing black, but I don't see any justification (other than to be contrary to supremacist groups) for not doing the same for white, which leaves it inconsistent with the naming of all other racial/ethnic groups.

You're right, they kind of assume the reader knows what they are thinking. My guess is that it is because white isn't used for comradery except if you are extreme, whereas it is normal to do so for non-white groups, so they are trying to delegitimize the extreme group. Whether it is the effective course of action given the goal is an interesting question.

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#96

Post by colourizer »

lanternfish wrote: post #94
hotdogscout wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leftist activists circles have grievances with white people and this is a small token of revenge. Depersonifying white people. Asians don't get internally consistent treatment because of intersectionality. Are we really pretending it's a coincidence all the time? This naivety is rightfully never applied to right wing bigotry. I'm not white myself but I'm genuinely confused as to why this kind of blatant ethnic antago…

The actual critique - which is articulated in many places - is that "white" isn't an ethnic group with an actual cultural or racial lineage. Instead, "white" was created and exists as the dual to "colored" - a shifting category encompassing many ethnicities that describes their position in a set of power structures, historically colonialism. Consider that "whiteness" has changed considerably over the usage of the ter…

[flagged]

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#97

Post by colourizer »

Chris2048 wrote: post #87
boplicity wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It may be bizarre for you, but it is often a reasoned and thoughtful use of the word, meaningful in the context of a complex and consistent consideration of the general meaning and usage of words. I encourage you to consider and understand the perspectives of those who do capitalize the word. This serves as an introduction to some people's thinking: https://www.cjr.org/analysis/capital-b-black-styleguide.php Note, th…

from your link, first paragraph: "For many people, Black reflects a shared sense of identity and community. White carries a different set of meanings; capitalizing the word in this context risks following the lead of white supremacists." I don't find that thoughtful. The argument further erodes when they also capitalize "Asian", which is described as "groups that include myriad ethnic identities united by shared race…

[flagged]

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#98

Post by hotdogscout »

lanternfish wrote: post #94
hotdogscout wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Leftist activists circles have grievances with white people and this is a small token of revenge. Depersonifying white people. Asians don't get internally consistent treatment because of intersectionality. Are we really pretending it's a coincidence all the time? This naivety is rightfully never applied to right wing bigotry. I'm not white myself but I'm genuinely confused as to why this kind of blatant ethnic antago…

The actual critique - which is articulated in many places - is that "white" isn't an ethnic group with an actual cultural or racial lineage. Instead, "white" was created and exists as the dual to "colored" - a shifting category encompassing many ethnicities that describes their position in a set of power structures, historically colonialism. Consider that "whiteness" has changed considerably over the usage of the ter…

The shift in labels and categories applies to all ethnicities, not just whites, even in the US.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/One-drop_rule

All of the definitions are contested and subject to localities, not just whiteness.

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/263722423_Not_black...

>is that "white" isn't an ethnic group with an actual cultural or racial lineage.

None of them are. There's more genetic diversity in sub Saharan Africa than in any other place on earth. People from Asia and people from Africa don't identify as black or asian as a consistent racial lineage.They're also a western ad hoc hodge podge just as much as whiteness is.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_people

None of your explanations single out white people as an especially fake identity inconsistent with asian or black.

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#99

Post by raincom »

ducttapecrown wrote: post #9

A group of people just asked me what verisimilitude was, now I'm excited to come back and tell them about verisimilitudinously.

In Popper's philosophy of science, the concept of verisimilitude plays an important role, or is a technical term.

Re: I now lack the juice to fuel the bluster to conceal that I am a simpleton

#100

Post by komali2 »

riehwvfbk wrote: post #74
AlotOfReading wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, you can speak like this. People are just going to think you're pretentious. This is the sort of language you use with specific audiences. The interviewer and the interviewee are simply using language for mutually exclusive audiences.

Somehow a particular audience in the Bay Area decided that they must be the only ones with a voice.

Perhaps you're getting downvoted for being weirdly coy. It sounds like you want to paint a bunch of people with one brush, why don't you just go ahead and do it?

I'll never understand this smirking form of reactionary elbow-nudging.

Post reply on HN