You’re intellectually lazy and oversimplifying a complex issue. You likely either lack social awareness or have a total lack of understanding of how minorities are bullied and made to feel worthless (because your views are so bland as to cause no offense, and you are not a member of any minority).
That's a bannable attack on HN. I'm not going to ban you because the thread is about "directness". On HN, however, it is not ok to be a direct asshole, so would you please not post like this here?
Let's try.
I think you should improve your grammar.
[ :) ]
And of course, it's good that this is open for everyone to see.
If you think my views are "bland", you haven't got a clue, and of course, you are a bully.
Good chat. Cheers.
Thing is, being open / honest sometimes triggers emotion and does not stimulate discussion or progress.
My experience (source: being Dutch / Swiss-German) is that it really really matters not only what is being said or even how true it is, a very important aspect is what / how the receiver interprets the message. When I am with my Dutch (Amsterdammer) family and friends, we are direct in a very specific way about specific subjects. Being with my Swiss-German family and friends we are too: but on different subjects and in different wording.
Just like humor translates lousy, so do nuance and social etiquettes.
I agree there are often situation where it would be helpful if people would be more direct.
However I think there are situations where it’s better to either avoid the issue entirely, or take a less direct approach. That might be the case with those who have radically different views to us, or are members of a minority where taking a direct approach might be misinterpreted as overly agressive, or could make them feel otherwise unwelcome.
Hmm...
Do you even realize there is a difference?
To me it is actually kind of ironic that the continual equating of "plain truth, even if it causes offense" with "intending to cause harm by intensional bullying masquerading as being truthful" has "progressed" [sic] so far as that people who hold these views truly can't tell the difference any longer.
I just don’t think it’s helpful, or advances the discussion to say them the way I did (or at all). I said them that way to illustrate a point.
You’ve failed to grasp this point. Being direct is good sometimes, but not always. And sometimes being “direct” is used to mask bullying behavior.
The “google manifesto” is one such example. I’d guess you consider it “being direct”?
I realize that it can be hard to bracket out one's reactive emotions when the internet is doing its provocation thing, but we need everyone here to try. Our common interest in having a site that doesn't suck needs to take precedence over our annoyance at each other's ideological views.
Could you please read https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=16288896? Your comments are increasingly vandalizing this site, and it's dismaying.