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Comment by fortythirteen | Hacker News Reader

(Argues that social media and data tracking is a dangerous combination that can serve to further alienate us from our humanity)

(Proceeds to inject his political agenda that, while it has many truths, is written in a way that will completely alienate anyone not far-left)

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When did suggesting government oversight of companies that have shown themselves to be bad actors become a far-left belief? Why does it feel like these appellations come from people that aren’t so much right or left politically, but just want to keep their fingers in their ears out of fear?

Did you read the article? He literally gave every example of maliciousness as right wing and provided no examples of how the left is equally manipulated.

So, is there an "equal opportunity" rule now? Do all citations of evil, atrocity, and maliciousness require both a "right-wing" and "left-wing" example just for the sake of fairness?

In the current environment, yes, they do.

Why? Because too often, each side tries to paint the other as the center of all evil. And people of both sides get really tired of being painted that way. They tune out very quickly when they run into something that paints them that way. So if you want both sides to hear you, you have to not shoot only at one side.

Government regulation is definitely a leftist idea and not something typically associated with the right.

That's far from "far", though.

It depends on the type and amount of regulation. I'd definitely classify Doctorow and this blog post as far-left.

IMO there is a particular kind of left that one find in and around the tech world, "Vally left" if you will.

It is a kind of "left" that maybe front some social issues (in particular gender as of late) but that can't bring themselves to really question the way things work on a really deep level.

The kind of left that would not know a industrial or service job if it landed on their head.

Looking over the wikipedia article on him, Doctorow may well be described as a professional activist.

Now, sure. But don’t tell Teddy Roosevelt. Or Lincoln. And there’s a bunch of air traffic controllers who might disagree with you about Reagan.

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