I never imagined that the nerd-flame-war that would cause me to take a HN break was over waking up in the morning, and not about bashing some poor database or microbenchmark.
Actually, I think this post, which is also causing me to take an HN break, is not very surprising from that perspective. It highlights one of the worst tendencies of HN I've been worried about a while.
HN is actually quite good on technical issues. People disagree, but it's rarely completely idiotic. There is smart stuff, and information is exchanged, and the overall level of debate is good.
But on philosophical issues, it's frankly not very good. There is a lot of knee-jerk bigotry. I mean this post leads by calling people "sissies", a clearly homophobic term. It also has a complete disinterest in science, and is longer on trolling and provocation than reason or intelligence. It worked. Got to #1 on HN!
Simple sound-bites, strong opinions, and posts that I can only really describe as in the "lifehacking" genre on the one hand, or the "political/social provocation" genre on the other hand, are what's the worst about HN. These are usually embarrassing at best. And in the best case they get flagged off the front page. The moderators are also clearly worried, because provocative titles often get changed, which sometimes leads to the posts fizzling without being flagged. Reduces damage, at least.
Anyway, as you say, time for a break. I'm sick of Joe Conway and his ilk of arrogant, ignorant assholes. Before chiding other people for being lazy, maybe these ignorant fucks should get off their asses and visit a library. They aren't stupid, but they're ignorant. Science and intelligence is about more than blogging whatever comes to the top of your head after 10 minutes of thought. You need to read. You need to think a bit about whether the first reaction that comes to mind is correct: is this really the position you want to write a manifesto about? Do you have data to support your contention that an alleged condition is imagined and actually the people are just lazy losers, and "suck it up" is a good prescription? Or are you just expressing a reactionary, right-wing political view borne more out of politics and prejudice than rationality and evidence?
Since when did "sissies" become homophobic? I recall as a kid not even knowing what gay or homosexual was, i.e. the 80's, and being a sissy simply meant someone who was afraid or a "scardy cat". It was far more analogous to wimp then anything else.
It's calling a man effeminate as an insult. That's not solely used to stigmatize gay people, but that's one of its main uses, along with stigmatizing gender-nonconforming people. I don't see much of a way to salvage it as anything but a right-wing, culturally reactionary term, any way you spin it; at best, it's imagined-1950s-gender-role garbage.
It was used when I was a kid too. But when I was a kid, people also used the words "Jewed" and "Gypped" to mean "got ripped off", and "gay" to mean "bad". In retrospect those those were all... not so good. And now I'm an adult who is capable of reading and gaining knowledge about such things.
This post smacks of reactionary prejudice. Some people are different than me? Something must be wrong with them! I am better than you because I wake up before you! You have got to be kidding.
If this post was written 40 years ago it would be directed at women telling them they actually have it pretty good. Hmm wait I actually saw that same thing just the other day.
These ignorant arrogant people need to figure out why they don't have even a smidgen of empathy and quit blaming us for being "bleeding hearts".
