rrsmtz

19 ms·

1.
by rrsmtz 3y ago
It’s not about demonizing, it’s about bringing it under control. Silicon Valley behemoths cooperate with the US government in a way that TikTok does not.
2.
by rrsmtz 3y ago
That doesn't make nearly as good of a headline. During the pandemic there were very similar claims about the massive growth in wealth of the top 1%, where the graph conveniently started at the bottom of the 2020 stock market crash. See
3.
by rrsmtz 3y ago
Unlike other professions, academics rarely face consequences for being wrong. A doctor who makes a bad diagnosis risks malpractice, a civil engineer risks their license, and so on. Academics only really need to worry about the perception of
4.
by rrsmtz 3y ago
Rich != Smart
5.
by rrsmtz 3y ago
Businesses and the free market are not an inherent good; they exist for the benefit of people and not the other way around. Gambling companies, drug dealers, and scammers share a business model that is only profitable when preying on the vu
6.
by rrsmtz 3y ago
Wow! Just discovered the Spotlight customization and it is so much faster and more useful when you remove certain locations and turn off definitions and Siri suggestions.
7.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
Can I get dibs on your username?
8.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
It'd be great to expose shady business, but somebody has to enforce the forced transparency and that's a LOT of power. Whoever has that power can pretty easily keep privacy for themselves and their friends, use it to blackmail oth
9.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
The point of human rights is to protect the underprivileged - the privileged of any given society don’t need to have these protections because they are at the top of the social hierarchy and get to call the shots. They would simply use thei
10.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
If the truth is that zoning is the only obstacle holding us back from idyllic, beautiful mixed-density cities, then I'm showing my ignorance, but I'm not convinced that it is. From what I've seen, developers love building pla
11.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
Even if they could, they wouldn't. The modern trend is demolishing beautiful, sustainably-built housing with shoddy, ugly, mass-produced 5-over-1s.
12.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
In a community like HN, where most people work on making rocks think, it’s no surprise when most people start applying the logic backwards: that since we think, we can be no more complex than rocks.
13.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
Let’s not forget that society is also out to kill you and utilize you. HN commenters are near the top of the food chain, while exploited third-world workers and oppressed groups are at the bottom.
14.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
Alternatively, discussing Elon Musk makes people act like children. Something to think about...
15.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
Swearing too much comes across as trying to seem cool or tough, and it usually has the opposite effect.
16.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
There will certainly be a lot of money to be had selling products and ideologies to the mass consumer via cheap mass-generated hyper-targeted content. That's not too far of a leap from Marvel/Star Wars where 'The Customer Is
17.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
Yes, they are different, but it’s extremely easy to conflate them if the skepticism is contrary to the interests of the powerful and you hold the power to censor.
18.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
Hence the recent crackdown on “misinformation”. Skepticism and dissent can’t be prevented, but its spread can be suppressed. Many otherwise good people have fallen hook line and sinker for the “misinformation pandemic” propaganda campaign.
19.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
China and the USA are vastly different countries, in almost every single way that modern states can be different. You're comparing apples to oranges.
20.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
"We" didn't kill anybody, they died of a highly transmissible and novel disease for which there was no cure and no vaccine for over a year. There was no possible way that death could have been completely averted. Yes, there w
21.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
Why not just say U.S. instead of North America?
22.
by rrsmtz 4y ago
This is the line that every extremist group uses to justify their horrible acts. Weaponizing open source is such an awful precedent. There are extremist groups of every shade who harbor ill intent towards some other group or institution. Fo
23.
by rrsmtz 5y ago
> Sanctity of life occurred gradually, and is in part a luxury of abundance. "Thou Shalt Not Kill" was not a product of an abundant, decadent society, and I promise you that Neumann had heard of it. I agree that Neumann gave hu
24.
by rrsmtz 5y ago
It's actually quite concerning and even a little suspicious that so many defamatory comments are linking criticism of the workplace with mental illness.
25.
by rrsmtz 5y ago
Do you think we have a responsibility towards people who aren't in the know, or who might have circumstances that make it hard to leave (for example, immigration processing)?
26.
by rrsmtz 5y ago
> Criticizing that from the comfortable perspective of today... doesn’t make a whole lot of sense. There's a difference between criticism and understanding. We can understand why people felt and acted the way they did in a given tim
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by rrsmtz 5y ago
This is a classic Marxist talking point (cultural hegemony): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_hegemony
28.
by rrsmtz 5y ago
It's not conspiratorial to believe that humans create organizations with common goals and agendas - they exist everywhere, from unions to NGOs. Here's a short list of organizations (off the top of my head) who discuss and advocate
29.
by rrsmtz 5y ago
> elites come from among the people ... People generate elites That's just false! In every society, the elite class is overwhelmingly comprised of families who maintain their high social standing and wealth over decades or centuries
30.
by rrsmtz 5y ago
Good god, I had no idea how bad the state of personal freedoms is in the UK. That's horrifying. For the curious, parent is talking about this: https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/terrorist-pr.

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