One must be able to discuss one another's point of view while being able to point out problematic perspectives of the participants in the discussion.
Ideas aren't abstract. They are molded and adapted by the people that hold them.
I know people on hackernews feel triggered by terms like "implicit bias" and "privilege" and will downvote anything that references these concepts, but it doesn't make them nonexistent, and it's unfortunately a problem in a large percentage of the comment group here.
Listening to a podcast about racial privilege shouldn't make you feel "attacked". And my comment should not have made you feel insulted. Comparing you to people who pretend that racism doesn't exist was a valid summary of your point that you'd prefer to listen to informative content about architecture, science and technology without references to any racial connotations associated with it.
It does NOT mean that I associated you with slave owners, eugenicists, lynchers, or genociders. I didn't even imply that you were racist. (If I had that ALSO wouldn't have placed you in the same category as those people because every belief has a wide spectrum). I mean that. I have no evidence or reason to believe that you are racist and have no interest in insulting you.
But if putting a mirror to your ideology makes you feel attacked because you don't like who it's associated with, the problem isn't the mirror.
HackerNews is becoming an echo chamber of "free speech is being suppressed. Diversity and inclusion is a scam. The world is getting too political. And white people are constantly under attack".
There is only a few of us on here that speak up against this narrative, and we get downvoted for making people feel bad about their beliefs under the guise of "not being curious" or "immature". It's incredibly disappointing that I've been in this industry for >20 years, and the exact same problems exist today as then - technologists who fail to take an interest in the human side of the society they provide technology for.
Ideas aren't abstract. They are molded and adapted by the people that hold them.
I know people on hackernews feel triggered by terms like "implicit bias" and "privilege" and will downvote anything that references these concepts, but it doesn't make them nonexistent, and it's unfortunately a problem in a large percentage of the comment group here.
Listening to a podcast about racial privilege shouldn't make you feel "attacked". And my comment should not have made you feel insulted. Comparing you to people who pretend that racism doesn't exist was a valid summary of your point that you'd prefer to listen to informative content about architecture, science and technology without references to any racial connotations associated with it.
It does NOT mean that I associated you with slave owners, eugenicists, lynchers, or genociders. I didn't even imply that you were racist. (If I had that ALSO wouldn't have placed you in the same category as those people because every belief has a wide spectrum). I mean that. I have no evidence or reason to believe that you are racist and have no interest in insulting you.
But if putting a mirror to your ideology makes you feel attacked because you don't like who it's associated with, the problem isn't the mirror.
HackerNews is becoming an echo chamber of "free speech is being suppressed. Diversity and inclusion is a scam. The world is getting too political. And white people are constantly under attack".
There is only a few of us on here that speak up against this narrative, and we get downvoted for making people feel bad about their beliefs under the guise of "not being curious" or "immature". It's incredibly disappointing that I've been in this industry for >20 years, and the exact same problems exist today as then - technologists who fail to take an interest in the human side of the society they provide technology for.