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Comment by krig | Hacker News Reader

This is a complete misunderstanding of what that quote from Stephen Fry is saying. Of course people get offended. Everyone get offended all the time! So what? He's doing exactly the right thing: He isn't having fun using Twitter, so he stops using it. He's not claiming that getting offended is somehow beneath him, he's saying that getting offended is no big deal.

It's everyone else who is making a big deal out of him leaving Twitter, which (again) kind of proves his original point. Stephen Fry leaves Twitter. Well, so fucking what.

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Came here to post this. The author of this post just made the biggest possible strawman:

> “Now the pool is stagnant, …frothy with scum.” Fry’s feelings aren’t feelings — they are a universal and objective standard of behavior, which everyone else is violating.

When he says "stagnant, frothy with scum" I don't interpret that as him complaining about his feelings, but rather that the discussion/communication (which, I guess, is the ultimate purpose of any communication medium) has become impossible, precisely because people keep being offended and complaining about their feelings.

You missed what he was saying. He's saying that Fry has feelings. He has an urge to talk about the feelings he has, but simultaneously feels he can't mention they're his feelings. So he rationalizes it into objective facts (which also prevents people from answering usefully).

In short: He says Fry is trying to claim his subjective views as objective facts.

His whole blog post is him talking about his feelings. Those are his feelings.

Exactly. Fry is writing about his feelings. Yet almost all of it uses the vocabulary of someone describing immutable and unarguable facts about the state of twitter.

I don't get it, both you and the blogger seems to think that this is revealing some big gotcha, that haha! Fry is hiding his feelings! But it isn't, there is no gotcha, those are his feelings. To him, Twitter is a cesspool, those are his feelings about it. So, he stops using it and he feels better.

There are no objective facts to be had regarding the state of Twitter. This is not physics or mathematics. The state of twitter is entirely subjective. How is Fry ever denying this?

"uses the vocabulary of someone describing immutable and unarguable facts".. What does that even mean? It's using the vocabulary of Stephen Fry talking about this thing that annoyed him and how distancing himself from it made him feel better. It is entirely about his feelings.

> but rather that the discussion/communication

So you mean he's not offended --- rather, the other people violated some universal standard of behavior?

Next time, try a little honesty. There's a lot more to feelings than simply "offended". Fry's post read as disheartened, emotionally drained. Not offended.

That this post tries to frame Fry's post as some kind of veiled offense and then smugly points out the inconsistency in that, is quite insulting in my eyes. Even if it were accurate about Fry's message, it would still be immensely rude to me to belittle another person like that.

> disheartened, emotionally drained

So he wasn't offended, he just had his feelings hurt?

As an aside, I was stunned to see that "Stephen Fry leaves Twitter" qualifies as national news in Sweden [1]. I don't know how this could get any more ridiculous. Can't wait to get the non-stop 24-hour coverage of Stephen Frys Twitter account: Is he going to start using it again? Will he start posting on Google+? Twitter CEO refuses to comment!

[1]: http://www.svt.se/kultur/film/stephen-fry-lamnar-twitter

It's not in the news because of the event... Like they don't track Twitter posts and see some celebrity stops posting and go put it in the news.

It's the commentary about the platform and the people using it. Sure it's not exactly 9/11 but it's not THAT bizarre that someone picked it up.

That would be one thing, if that was what it was. But it's not! It's exactly what you say, "in the news because of the event". The whole story is "Stephen Fry made a joke and then he left twitter and wrote about it on his blog". There is zero discussion of the platform or the people using it.

It's kind of legitimate news because he was an early Twitter star and did a lot to popularize it, and now he's decided it's not working out for him anymore. This somewhat interesting angle seems to be getting buried under more clickworthy and dramatic narratives.

I dont know Fry but he isn't handling things as well as Dawkins does it seems. Dawkins has a hilarious video of him reading the most hateful tweets.

You have to be careful. Some of the people who complain about others being offended all the time are the biggest babies.

[Edit] If he is leaving bc it is no fun anymore that is an excellent reason.

Why does someone even need to justify to others their decision to leave Twitter? Why do they need to handle it well? Social media sucks more because complete strangers feel they have the right the dissect someone else's behavior from thousands of miles away, and pass judgment upon them for violating rules that the target may not even know exist, more than because some people are "babies" and can't stand the nitpicking.

Stephen Fry has bipolar disorder. His most recent suicide attempt was in 2012. His decision to leave Twitter is entirely understandable and sensible.

Did not know that and that is important context. I hope he is receiving proper medical treatment and wish him the best.

Dawkins and everyone else in the world are certainly entitled to express themselves, but there are also repercussions for that expression. He's said some rather dim-witted stuff about religions in general and some religions in particular and while I will defend to the death his right to say those things, it doesn't reflect all that well on his person imo.

What is the worst thing he said that was dim-witted that you remember off hand? Generally curious, he defends his positions rather well I believe.

I think his comment about Muslims and Nobel Prizes was not one of his finer moments.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/aug/08/richard...

It's one of those comments that was so obviously stupid and pointless, its difficult to know where to start in responding to it.

For one he has attacked Christianity for being, well, religulous, more than he has attacked Islam. And that doesn't mean Christianity is more religulous than Islam; it means Dawkins is a coward and fears fewer repercussions from attacking Christianity than from attacking Islam.

There is nothing wrong with being afraid to attack Islam. It is a legitimate scary death cult. So is Christianity, but Christianity is somewhat safer to criticize.

> It's everyone else who is making a big deal out of him leaving Twitter

When I clicked this link I (genuinely) had to check the date, because Fry has been flouncing from Twitter for years.

And yes, flouncing is the word. Fry could quite easily stop using Twitter if he wanted to. He could just stop using it.

Instead he, not "everyone else", writes a lengthy post about the event on his website, perhaps for anyone who missed his leaving Twitter announcement of 2014, or his 2009 announcement about leaving Twitter.

How is writing a lengthy post about your feelings on your website making a big deal about anything? That's what your website is there for. It's a public diary where people who care about what you think can read your thoughts.

That he has quit Twitter before makes it even more of a non-event, if possible.

How is writing about a "non-event" for his thousands of Twitter fans and media friends to share and talk about and report on not making it a big deal?

Exactly!

We have a saying in Portugal: "Quem está mal que se mude" that can be roughly translated to "Who doesn't feel well [here] should/can move". It mean that anyone who is unconfortable here isn't obliged to stay here and is free to go anywhere else.

That's what Fry did. He is not happy with/in Twitter, so he went away. His "‘I am offended by that.’ Well, so fucking what." remark remains sound.

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