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Comment by maxxxxx | Hacker News Reader

Americans love to moralize and punish each other. Instead of saying that they think somebody is wrong they like to make the other person into some evil person who can't even be argued with because they are so evil. That's why there is no real political discourse but just people screaming at each other.

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Americans (at least the left leaning ones) also love holiness spiral signalling wars. Its quite possible OP doesn't believe anything in the linked to article, but that style of writing is how the left does sophistry, its the progressive modern way to signal superiority and worth. Op wants attention and smugness, that's how its done in 2016. People who believe any of the linked article is literally true end up with the same logical problems as people who believe every word of a holy book is literally true. The linked article is well written sophistry but don't expect sophistry to contain anything rational. If you didn't get to irrational beliefs in a rational logical manner, you're not going to escape from irrational beliefs using rational or logical discussion, which makes debating the specific points of the sophistry pointless.

The right wingers love to do that too, not only the lefties. Call somebody "racist" or "socialist" and you have marked them as so bad that no further dialog is needed (or even possible).

I agree emphatically that this is on both sides. Those of us who have watched with relief and hope the decline of influence of irrational, moralizing, censoring fundamentalist Christians[1] (on the right) are somewhat shocked and disappointed to see such a dramatic uptick of irrational moralizing fundamentalist social justice activists[1] on the left.

[1] Not all of them! But enough to cause harm to society

    Its quite possible OP doesn't believe anything in the linked to article

By OP I assume you mean me, ie: the guy who submitted the article to HN, not the author.

First, I'm not out for attention, but thanks for that unprompted attack (dick). I submitted this as it seemed wrong that it kept being censored/flagged off HN. Honestly I expected it to be flagged off again, but hoped at least a few more people would get to see it.

For me the real issue isn't so much that Thiel is Trump supporter, but that Sam Altman and PG have both been very vocal in their denouncement of Trump, so keeping Thiel as a partner (not employee, let's be clear about that) seems incongruous at best, and down right spineless at worst.

Don't get me wrong, Donald Trump is huge cunt in my view, but even if I were indifferent to Trump, I'd still feel Thiel and Ycombinator should not be doing business together with such drastically conflicting values.

It's also probably worth mentioning I'm English and live in the UK, and this whole election reminds me of Brexit. Pretty much everyone I spoke to thought it would be a landslide for remain. Hell, even the politicians advocating leave didn't seem to think they'd win. Yet here we are, £GBP in free fall, and no one on either side seems to have any idea what to do next.

Even if it seems unlikely now, Trump could end up as president, and that's scary for a lot of people.

> Sam Altman and PG have both been very vocal in their denouncement of Trump, so keeping Thiel as a partner seems incongruous at best, and down right spineless at worst.

You may have to clarify this for me, because it sounds as if you believe people with different political ideals can never work together, even on something non-political.

It seems the exact opposite to me. Spineless would be cutting ties with Thiel, even though it's against their principles to do so over political affiliation, just because some people who get hysterical over politics want them to.

Their main values are making boatloads of money legally. That unifies Thiel, YC and everybody else.

I don't think Thiel should be ostracized but it would be nice if he was asked to explain his thinking a little more instead of just yelling at him. He is a smart guy, maybe there is something to learn.

> "Sam Altman and PG have both been very vocal in their denouncement of Trump, so keeping Thiel as a partner ... seems incongruous at best, and down right spineless at worst"

When people you know to be both intelligent and courageous seem to be doing something crazy and/or spineless, you should ask yourself what presuppositions you differ on.

You seem to hold the presupposition that people cannot work professionally together if they hold divergent political views. Think carefully about the implications of that viewpoint, and whether it's one that others can be assumed to hold.

So it boils down to people who know they live in extreme conformist echo chambers, and think everyone else is trapped in a similar cell, repeatedly are surprised when the isolated echo chamber fails to accurately model reality, and when that happens, its always someone else's fault because some third party are dicks, cunts, have no idea whats going on, or they're scary. The theoretical model, and the echo chamber, are immaculately conceived and error free and the source of the problem is always elsewhere.

Since I can't think of a response better than restating it myself, I think I'll leave it right there? I mean there's really nothing else to say. To paraphrase Newton what doesn't work will continue not to work unless a force is applied.

I see a lot of Trump supporters doing the same thing as the (mainstream) left is doing here. The entire concept is strange to me, that they would so rabidly support their tribe that they think they've attained some a) of moral superiority or b) their tribe is the only thing stopping the country from total disaster. The truth is a lot more boring than their fantasies. The media feeds into this hysteria though so I don't blame all of them.

> Americans love to moralize and punish each other. Instead of saying that they think somebody is wrong they like to make the other person into some evil person who can't even be argued with because they are so evil. That's why there is no real political discourse but just people screaming at each other.

It used to be the monopoly of the right in US, now it's interesting to see that the left engages in the exact same rhetoric, techniques and tactics. Or maybe they always did, it's just more blatant today how both sides are extreme and if you don't fall in line you're either Satan or worse than Hitler.

>Americans love to moralize and punish each other. Instead of saying that they think somebody is wrong they like to make the other person into some evil person who can't even be argued with because they are so evil.

That used to be mostly confined to the conservative side of the political spectrum. Now it's spread to the liberal side as well.

I think its the anonymizing nature of the internet. We're not evolved to communicate digitally. Its going to be a rough road here on out for the human race.

I agree with your first two sentences, but I think we'll figure this out within another generation.

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