Hacker Newsnew | past | comments | ask | show | jobs | submitlogin

> middle area where the person doesn’t understand Bay Area culture... > genuine questions get downvoted

The problem is these "genuine questions," for other people, are received as: bad faith questions, "sea lioning", poorly researched questions (e.g., simple query would find the answer), microagressions, dog whistles, sock puppet arguments, or other incendiary social media argument techniques.

Whether every instance of "hi, I'm new here, why is affirmative action a good thing?" is actually bad faith, etc. is irrelevant.

Diversity as a topic gets downvoted, flagged, and removed because the heat keeps happening on those threads. Regardless of which side you occupy or support or even if you claim to support no side at all, it consistently produces uncharitable and unproductive discussion.



There are a good amount of people who are "asking" those questions in bad faith. And, after a while, it gets exhausting to those who get bombarded with those questions. And those doing that in bad faith know it. It's kinda like a DDOS attack on them.


>> middle area where the person doesn’t understand Bay Area culture... genuine questions get downvoted

>The problem is these "genuine questions," for other people, are received as: bad faith questions, "sea lioning", poorly researched questions (e.g., simple query would find the answer), microagressions, dog whistles, sock puppet arguments, or other incendiary social media argument techniques.

Those things - I don't understand or currently agree with your view, so it's a "bad faith question" - are Bay Area culture.

In the rest of the adult world, it's OK to not share your opinion before asking questions.


[flagged]


Please (re-)read and follow the site guidelines: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Comments like this rightly get downvoted and flagged for being unsubstantive, flamebait, ideological battle, and going on about downvotes. Then of course people complain that it's their politics which are being censored.


[flagged]


I disagree. I think a lot of people not familiar with the term micro aggression think it’s all stupid. But I have been feeling as though I understand better what people mean when they use the term micro aggression. They’re talking about people being rude, inconsiderate, or mean and not even realizing it. And the term micro aggression is used to communicate that they feel uncomfortable and they want the other to recognize that and change their behavior.

I think if someone is making you feel uncomfortable you have every right to tell them. Now if they decide not to change that’s up to them, and you two may choose not to have a relationship moving forward, but it’s okay to share how you feel and ask for change.

However some people decide they are the victim of aggression and they then yell at the other person, and that’s obviously absurd. If you don’t want people to be aggressive at you, don’t be aggressive at them.

But what you’re proposing is that, when someone is feeling uncomfortable, we should make them more uncomfortable. I think that’s shitty behavior and I don’t believe it is helpful. Do you?


What should we do when someone is feeling uncomfortable simply because someone else is has an opposing political view?

Feeling disgust at an political view is a well established medical phenomenon. It trigger the same brain region as smelling rotten food, garbage and contaminated water. How would we go about to prevent triggering this reaction?


What I'm most excited about with Kennedy's replacement is seeing affirmative action finally get the axe. Many, many people think that the erosion of meritocracy is a bad thing even for the groups it's intended to benefit.


Those people probably also believe that we have or ever had a meritocracy, when nothing could be further from the truth.


I really have a hard time coming up with a field outside of pro sports that is more meritocratic than tech. The assault on that in the name of "diversity" is morally repulsive, and I'll be very happy to see racial discrimination outlawed.




Guidelines | FAQ | Lists | API | Security | Legal | Apply to YC | Contact

Search: