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Comment by scrollaway | Hacker News Reader

It's one thing that you don't understand what it's actually like to live on the edge. Maybe you haven't experienced it. I don't wish for you to experience it.

But it's another frankly repulsive thing for you to act superior and give such awful advice to those people.

Maybe you should experience what it's like. Try and give you a better idea of what it's like to be a few dollars away from being homeless. Have your children removed from your care because you cannot provide from them. Have your entire life thrown away if you lose your job.

Not everyone can just "find a new job". Why don't you come here in Greece and ask the majority of the population why they can't find a job?

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Your comments in this thread used way too much inflammatory language and crossed the line into incivility, culminating in accusing people of being sociopathic. Please don't do that. It's no picnic to be around someone bursting with indignation, even when one agrees with them.

The HN guidelines ask you specifically not to call names in comments, whether or not someone else says bad things. You called a lot of names; that's understandable on a subject that evokes strong emotion, but those also are the occasions where the guidelines most apply. Had you followed them and edited those bits out, your comments would have been more persuasive, and also more dignified.

Sorry, you're right. I'm guessing you're talking about my other comment then? I agree it was too strong, but by the time I wanted to edit it it wasn't editable anymore.

This one OTOH I'm not sure what's wrong with it.

I just picked one comment to reply to, but the problem was across all of them. The above one is also too 'strong', to use your word, in a personal way.

I sympathize with the emotion behind it, but when you weaponize it like that and direct it at somebody, you break the bonds of community here—which are so weak to begin with, that protecting them has to be everyone's priority.

Thanks for responding so nicely.

I HAVE experienced what it is like. Its insulting that you would make assumptions. If you are living in such a terrible place you really are better off with a fresh start. Speaking from experience. If a minion gif can "ruin your life" it was already a infix able house of cards. I've updated my previous comment with details.

> I HAVE experienced what it is like.

No, you quite clearly haven't, and it's insulting for everyone in that position that you would pretend you have.

As for your experience per your edit, I'm sorry you had such a high stress job and it's good to hear you got a better one, but that's not at all the situations I was talking about.

Have you been in a situation where you don't know how to pay the rent, will get kicked out if you don't and have no place to live if you get kicked out?

Have you been in jail for something meaningless and experienced employer after employer declining even having you in an interview because of the red flag?

Have you been part of an economy where the majority of the population cannot find a job because nobody is hiring, because nobody has money left?

If you had a job in any of those situations, you'd be damn glad to have it and you wouldn't be looking for a "fresh start" just because the conditions are not ideal.

> No, you quite clearly haven't, and it's insulting for everyone in that position that you would pretend you have.

You're assuming that someone who differs from you in opinion (not their view of the facts), is stupider than you, less experienced than you, and dishonest. That's not an argument, that's just peer pressure.

edit: and whoever flagged it, I'd love to know what kind of criteria they were using (flagged: not feeling my pain deeply enough?)

I'm not assuming. He edited his post with a story which has absolutely nothing to do with the kind of thing we're dealing with here.

Being in a high stress job and being able to leave it to get a better one is not the same thing as being in a situation where you cannot lose your job lest you risk your children, your home etc.

And even without such an edit, it's ridiculously easy to tell he hasn't been in that situation. If you go around telling people "pah, they just need a fresh start, new job, new wife", you've not been in a situation where you understand this isn't always an option. Good for you, but you live in one hell of a bubble.

I seriously doubt that you have. You wouldn't be writing nonsense about a "fresh start" or "finding a new job/wife" otherwise. Even steps much more insignificant than those are simply impossible for a vast amount of people on this planet.

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