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Comment by kkleindev | Hacker News Reader

I believe that PG makes a very interesting point in Hackers and Painters saying that one shouldn't discuss about whether something is sexist, racist or offensive but rather just whether it is accurate or not.

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The problem is that as a rich white dude, he's really not ever going to be on the receiving end of those things and his "just rise above it" stance consequently doesn't carry any weight.

Ideas should (albeit this is an idealistic notion) be judged by their content, not who speaks them.

I'm well off and I have white skin, yet I started in poverty and I was discriminated against for the non-western country I came from.

We all face challenges and injustices, there's never been an "us vs them."

> Ideas should (albeit this is an idealistic notion) be judged by their content, not who speaks them.

Funny how it's almost always (like 99% of the time) privileged white dudes bewailing this trope and almost always on topics they want to hold offensive opinions about.

Perhaps, though it doesn't make it untrue.

Equally it doesn't make it true either.

Essentially what you're saying is that, because he's a white male, his opinion on the matter isn't taken as seriously. In other words, this is a clear case of sexism/racism.

Alternatively: his membership in a privileged class is unlikely to grant him especially accurate insight into the experience of individuals in less privileged classes, and more likely to reinforce his bias to justify his own privileged position.

Deleting because apparently you can get brigaded and fired for any slightly dissenting opinion.

> Essentially what you're saying is that, because he's a white male, his opinion on the matter isn't taken as seriously.

Correct. Just as my opinion, as a privileged white dude, can be largely ignored on the topics of the problems of the less privileged because I do not have the experiences necessary to give them any weight.

TBH, that's irrelevant too. The interesting part here (at least for me, YMMV) is the reactions, from the owners, the media, the people... Not sure if we should credit the author with this shift of focus, though.

I agree 100%, the only stake I have in this is the lack of argumentation paired with the amount of outrage and knee-jerk reactions being portrayed as normal by the media.

The only counter arguments I see around this is essentially "this is not a person I generally agree with so their opinion has zero value. They might be a doctor in psychology but my opinion is more correct."

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