And this just out - adding to my other post:
Shame on Y Combinator
951–960 of 1001 posts
Re: Shame on Y Combinator
#952Earlier quoted context omitted.
No one has the influence to convert the US to anything overnight. However, I do think that normalizing the language of authoritarianism can have long-term negative effects on our democratic process.
Trumps authoritarianism is much less threatening than the same rhetoric from Obama or Hillary. A lot of people are advocating authoritarianism- in fact thats the point of this whole thread- whether we should "excommunicate" Peter Theil. But they don't seem to realize that leftism is essentially more authoritarian than rightism. Rightists want economic freedom, Leftists don't. (On social freedom neither of them want i…
They're authoritarian in a sense too, but only in the ways you would expect people inside of an institution wanting to expand that institution's powers.
Trump is authoritarian in a different, more overt way. He's proposed extreme authoritarian moves like mass deportation, religious tests for entry to the US, camps, and directing the justice system at political enemies.
Maybe you don't see the difference between their versions of authoritarianism, but I do, and a lot of other people do too. It's an unfair comparison, and I think you should be able to recognize that.
Re: Shame on Y Combinator
#953This was deleted by moderators - reposting:
None of you on the 'left coast' got balls to say: I support Trump. And I do support Trump.
What the left media is telling is simply not true. For example Racism, 4 points:
1. Picture w/ Rosa Parks: http://pbs.twimg.com/media/Cq-YIOzXEAEyEN7.jpg:medium
2. Picture w/ KKK 'leader' (not sure what they call self): http://img.youtube.com/vi/xDhpqFkUeeE/0.jpg
3. Bring them to heal(vid): http://tinyurl.com/jbeqqk7
4. Calling out a racist(not runnig yet - old vid): http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4xymmq
More - a tie breaker: http://youtube.com/watch?v=b329eUPKQVg
And the tradition of racisam: http://www.thesleuthjournal.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/03/d....
But today, we have disent, fighting against it (assuming YOU the reader belive they can think for self) - http://tinyurl.com/j89tf56
When we on the right (to the right relative to authoritarian left) say broadcast media is lying - this is an example. Left should be shamed when we can.
I am engineer by training - give me data points.
Re: Shame on Y Combinator
#954I was one of those "I loathe your opinion but I will defend to the death your right to say it" people when it came to Trump right up until now.
He's started claiming that if he loses the election, it'll be because of voter fraud, which is indefensible.
Re: Shame on Y Combinator
#955You really need to stop confusing the opinion of a propaganda site for reality. Shame on you for being so completely patronizing and such an asshole as to imply that I haven't spent any time thinking about this. This issue affects me directly, so you can't possibly know how little regard I have for your anti-intellectualism (and you've been anti-intellectual for years here). You believe what you want to believe and y…
We've banned this account for these personal attacks on another user, which is just not OK on Hacker News. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12738065 .
Things got heated but cut him some slack, he made some good points earlier. I'm sure jacquesm doesn't care either way.
Re: Shame on Y Combinator
#956Earlier quoted context omitted.
I don't have a problem with a private company, such as YC or a production company, firing someone for publicly donating a massive amount of money to a political candidate. McCarthyism was different because: 1. Many of the people who were fired, blacklisted, or persecuted were only suspected communists. 2. Somewhat related: if any of the blacklisted people were rich enough to do so, they didn't publicly donate their d…
> "Many of the people who were fired, blacklisted, or persecuted were only suspected communists" would it have been OK to fire, blacklist, or persecute them if they had been actual communists, then?
It would have been OK with me to fire (and only fire) them if they were actual communists. Political beliefs are not a protected class in the United States.
Re: Shame on Y Combinator
#957Earlier quoted context omitted.
Criticizing/arguing is fine. But expelling Thiel from YC (a company which has nothing to do with politics), because of his views, is a form of punishment and discourages others from expressing their political opinions, in fear of the same happening to them. So, it is suppression of free speech, through actions (not words) designed to intimidate.
That's still not suppression of free speech. I know this is cliché, but freedom of speech does not mean freedom from consequence. I can exercise my freedom of speech at my employer and repeatedly say terribly insulting and disparaging things to my coworkers. My employer can then fire me. Would you say my employer is suppressing my freedom of speech? The answer is obviously no. I still can speak freely, just not while…
Indeed, "free speech" is a narrower issue. This issue is merely one of tolerance, and whether or not it is possible for people to continue to work together while respectfully disagreeing on political matters or whether we would prefer to divide further and eventually have separate Republican and Democratic economies.
Re: Shame on Y Combinator
#958I am not a US citizen and definitely not familiar with all its laws and rules and such. I do wonder, if one thinks endorsing Trump is punishable, shouldn't they bring up a legal case? If it is not against the law, why cannot it be done?
If Trump is a new Hitler, shouldn't there be a legal way to put him out of the election? If his campaign is legal, why all the fuss? Just don't vote for him. Isn't that exactly why you Americans hold elections?
You want democracy and elections, you got to live with the outcomes. You may get what you don't want.
Re: Shame on Y Combinator
#959Earlier quoted context omitted.
We've banned this account for these personal attacks on another user, which is just not OK on Hacker News. We detached this comment from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12738065 .
Things got heated but cut him some slack, he made some good points earlier. I'm sure jacquesm doesn't care either way.
Yes, things did get heated and we understand when that happens. If a user emails us at hn@ycombinator.com and we believe that this will never happen again, we're happy to unban the account, but we do need this to stop now. Plenty of slack has been cut already, and it runs out before we get to the likes of this comment.
Re: Shame on Y Combinator
#960I am not a US citizen and definitely not familiar with all its laws and rules and such. I do wonder, if one thinks endorsing Trump is punishable, shouldn't they bring up a legal case? If it is not against the law, why cannot it be done? If Trump is a new Hitler, shouldn't there be a legal way to put him out of the election? If his campaign is legal, why all the fuss? Just don't vote for him. Isn't that exactly why yo…
> Just don't vote for him. Isn't that exactly why you Americans hold elections?
This is a loaded question and a good one at that. To put it simply, the presidential election is particularly unique compared to other elections in the US because of several intertwining factors.
1) Unless under exceptional circumstances, the US presidential voting system will always devolve into a 2 party race. Because of this, "choice" is much more of an illusion than people are taught to believe in the US.
2) The manner of choosing party representatives (Trump, Clinton) can be gamed or rigged. For the parties, this is to unify support and strengthen the chance that the president will at least be "on your side" (left, right) even if you don't support all of that candidates particular stances. This sounds great, but this tosses all of the niche voters, which is a broad net because people are forced to be in one of these two parties to not have a wasted vote in the presidential election, to the side and forces them to pick a lesser of two evils.
3) The presidential election is unique in that it uses an electoral college system. When you vote, you are not voting for the president. You are voting for someone to vote on your behalf and hoping that they follow through (yes, oversimplified but it is how it works at the most basic level). This is why you can predict the outcome of the race based on just how a few swing states vote. It's also why your vote doesn't really matter if you are not in one of these swing states.
And these are just the obvious problems in the __presidential election__ system in the US. Voting for representatives, Senate and House, are just as bad in other ways (gerrymandering being the big issue). So no, it's not really as simple as not voting for Trump (or any other candidate for that matter).
On another note, most Americans do not understand how the system truly works and the flaws. On top of that, if you live inside the US or obtain most of your news via US media outlets, I've found that there is a huge bias and attempt to ignore certain realities. As someone who works and lives abroad consuming news that's not even in English, it was clear early on that Trump was going to win the primaries and that Clinton in particular would have a hard time against Trump. The vocal reaction to the current situation is exactly what you should expect.