edw519 is allowed to have an opinion, and his opinion does not, at least to me, seem unreasonable.
Not everyone is going to agree with your civil disobedience actions, or you asking for help with the consequences. That doesn't make them bad people, or wrong people, for saying they don't like your approach, think you should accept consequences, or whatever else. For example, MLK didn't hate the clergymen that disagreed with his direct action approach. He essentially told them to man up, join the movement, and accept the consequences of sitting in jail sometimes as a result.
Not that edw519 is quite as eloquent, but none of edw519's comments are patronizing, they were his description of the situation as he saw it, and the outcome he thought should occur.
Characterizing this as "spitting in the face of someone asking for help" is pure hyperbole.
If everyone agreed on a course of action and outcome, you wouldn't actually need a movement. That a person died tragicallly does not mean that everyone who did not see eye to eye with that person is an egotistical patronizing dickhead who spit in their face because they did not want to help the movement. It just means they did not see eye to eye.
Acting as if it is more than that is, as others have said, a circular witchhunt. Sometimes tragic events are just that: Tragic events.
The whole "news" story is ridiculous. One can be sad and feel it a tragedy that a young man committed suicide, even if you disagree with the approach that person took.
Lastly, I'll point out that if edw519 were to meet an untimely demise, your post is exactly of the same tone and impression as his.
So being hypocritical is "pretense of having virtues, beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually possess"
You are assuming that edw519 does not find Cory's eulogy to bring understanding to sad and confused people.
You also claim it doesn't affect him deeply.
Maybe it does because he felt he was so hard on him?
In essence, I guess I justify this change by saying I believe his post when he said he feels it will "bring understanding to sad and confused people."
Again, it's perfectly reasonable to dislike or villify someone, but be sad or confused at their passing, and find comfort in a eulogy.
Let me risk a few pitchforks and say I used to villify former senator Ted Stevens. He was an unapologetic pork barrel politician.
When he died suddenly in a plane crash, that does not mean I was happy for his death, and I was definitely sad and felt bad for his loved ones. I was not at home screaming "wooh, that arrogant fucker's dead!" while dancing around the room. Had his eulogy been posted here and I noticed, I would have hoped it would bring understanding and comfort to those who loved him.
Does this make me a hypocrite?
No, because it's not a pretense. I was in fact, genuinely sad. Personally, I don't think that makes me anything more than "not a sociopath".
It could be i'm just different than a lot of folks, of course. As a lawyer, it's basically beaten into our heads to be dispassionate and objective when evaluating people, emotions, and events.
>Not everyone is going to agree with your civil disobedience actions
No, but those who don't support, say, MLK Jr., deserve to be shamed for their regressive attitude.
Practically speaking, the forces of regression are always louder and stronger than the voices for progress. But if we don't denounce and shame those regressive voices, then the voices for progress end up feeling so alone and unloved.
The truth about HN is that there are a lot of selfish, money-grubbing, right-wing people here who would happily shit all over Aaron because Aaron was a left-wing activist.
It's not okay to let these regressive, conservative figures steal the spotlight. If you don't support Aaron's actions, you don't deserve civility. You are beneath contempt and deserve to be spat on, insulted, publically humiliated, like any common racist, bigot, anti-abolitionist, or Ancieme Regime blue blood. Right-wingers simply deserve shame and mockery and if progressive people would hold the conservatives in our midst to standards of human decency, then those conservatives wouldn't be winning the day and our most powerful and successful left-wing activists like Aaron would be less likely to kill themselves.
Aaron literally sacrificed himself for the sake of the species and the response from HN was "fuck Aaron. What did he ever do to help MY bottom line?"
These right-wing assholes on HN should be shamed just like we used to shame racists, sexists, eugenicists, Nazis.
I say shame on all the people creating throwaway accounts to sling mud around.
'Let's take a step back.'
Techcrunch publish an article singling out a single negative post (among many more) on HN from 120 days ago, and suddenly the pitchfork brigade are screaming for an apology within the hour. No need to worry about the bullying prosecutor any more officer, we've found the man!
Because clearly none of these people have ever said anything rash on the internet. What sanctimonious rubbish.
"Techcrunch publish an article singling out a single negative post (among many more) on HN from 120 days ago"
Looking at the post, it would seem that edw's opinion was the most popular in the hivemind (judging by the upvotes on his comment), so it's fair to single out that post which summarized the thoughts of the many people upvoting.
Unless people just arbitrarily upvoted him, which would have other ramifications ...
It's not fair to single out one individual, particularly when the not so subtle (and completely speculative) inference is that the discussion led to Swartz's suicide.
Either you are new here, in which case you don't know Ed well enough to be leaving comments like this one, or you are a troll, or you are a regular member hiding behind a newly-created anonymous account.
well this is a newly created account, but I've been here for four years. I remember when people were missing comments by nicb, when patio11 wasn't a lead karma recipient. Ed fucked up man. And as I've said it now in three other comments, this guy sold a freaking book of his comments from this exact site. I've been an asshole. I've said things I really, really shouldn't have. But the people calling for Ed to publicly apologize have the least of it. And for the record, I'm not a regular contributor hiding behind a new account. I've commented less than a dozen times before the last few days, from two other accounts that I promptly forgot. Just because we don't have high karma doesn't mean we don't have relevant opinions and arguing the opposite sounds pretty shameful.
1. Ed did not "fuck up". He posted his opinion. I don't -- and didn't -- agree with it, but that does not make him a bad person. And, by the way, you are right now committing the exact same sin as you are accusing him of, which makes you a hypocrite to boot. If there is any discussion worth having here, it is not about that specific comment, it is about the tone and personality of this site.
2. He sold a book of things that people found insightful. So what? I have a collection of Robert Fulghum's short works, what's the difference really?
3. You're being an asshole right now.
4. The people calling for Ed to publicly apologize are misguided, at best. The only reason that they are even aware of that comment is because it ended up on TechCrunch, and how many of those people are, themselves, guilty of the accusations that they would levy against another respected member here? Once again, the only productive thing that could come from all of this colossal stupidity would be for HN to collectively reconsider its tone and personality.
5. Part of the etiquette here is that if you are going to accuse someone of wrongdoing, you bloody well ought to at least put your name behind it. Whether you agree with that or not, those are the rules here. Using anonymous accounts to spew hatred towards other people is cowardly, at best.
6. My reply to fermule had nothing to do with his internet points, and everything to do with the fact that his comments are so stupid, so inciteful, that either they are the work of a troll or of a member that should know better, or someone from somewhere else on the internet that doesn't know better. What I find most abhorrent about HN at this moment is that fermule's comments currently have a net positive score, despite being almost perfectly identical to the kind of garbage that you'd expect to find on Reddit.
Someone was asking for help and mr. edw519, just spit in his face with such absurd comments.
Lets take a step back. Would you spit in the face of someone asking for help. What type of patronizing comments did edw519 make?
He still hasn't said sorry and that tells me all I need to know about him and his ego.
Shame on the members that supported edw519