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Comment by ap22213 | Hacker News Reader

You guys realize that just because you get to walk down to the Blue Bottle with your 8-of-10 girlfriend and her Kate Spade purse to buy $4 scones, 98% or more of the world's surface is far from that. I mean, of course you know that. And, you also know that Obama is an intelligent, and good guy. And, you also know that he had the best intentions before coming into office.

So, wouldn't you think that maybe he has had to be pragmatic about his decisions? Occam's razor, right?

The world isn't black and white, and when one is responsible for hundreds of millions of lives, a person may need to take the most pragmatic approaches that are available.

You really want to change this (instead of just complaining on internet forums)? Figure out a way to address the root problem. And, if you can't do that, invent new approaches that a president can use that are better than what's available currently.

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> You guys realize that just because you get to walk down to the Blue Bottle with your 8-of-10 girlfriend and her Kate Spade purse to buy $4 scones

This is a form of name-calling, which you did again below ("people who'd rather play WoW and binge watch mindless Netflix shows") and which the site guidelines ask you not to do (https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html). It lowers the quality of discussion, so please don't do that.

Edit: perhaps it would be helpful to try to articulate how these things lower the quality of discussion. The point isn't that people are bad for breaking the rules. Nor does moderation exist to punish or shame bad behavior. Rather, think of it as more like an optimization algorithm. We're trying to optimize HN for signal/noise ratio, and need everyone to participate.

When you let loose a bunch of insulting images and denunciations as part of an argument, that feels satisfying because you're (temporarily) expelling something unpleasant out of your personal system. Unfortunately, though, now it's circulating in the community system. Among readers who happen to disagree with your view of the topic, some will inevitably feel like the insults and denunciations are directed at them, and react accordingly. The discussion then proceeds along two channels: one about the topic, and one about sending and receiving insults. From an HN point of view, that second channel is noise, not signal. Worse, it tends to overwhelm the first and to keep escalating.

This isn't as bad as a direct personal attack, but it's still destructive of discussion quality. The solution, IMO, is to recognize that we all have these irritants circulating in our system and we're each responsible for processing them instead of dumping them into the commons.

What he needed to be was, a leader. To inspire us to be our better selves, by taking some risks to support our ideals. Like not becoming a police surveillance state, and guaranteeing a trial.

Pragmatic is the name you give to what you end up doing because you haven't the courage of your convictions.

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