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Comment by geggam | Hacker News Reader

HN voting is a groupthink censor

For people who want a marketplace of ideas people sure do get mad when the market doesn't buy what they are selling.

Society is a groupthink censor. If your beliefs are too extreme in any number of directions, society will eventually shun you. Whether you think this behavior is wrong or not usually depends on how closely your beliefs match the beliefs that are currently being shunned.

Sucks for folks like Socrates doesnt it ?

Heh Galileo, similarly came to my mind.

LOL ...the hemlock folks are downvoting this

Sure, the standards change over time. You would likely be shunned 200 years ago if you said whites and blacks had equal intellect. You would likely be shunned today if you said the opposite. Society generally moves in the right direction. "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."

I was simply pointing out that this phenomena is not new or limited to the internet. It is inherently human. It also is neither completely negative or positive. It just is.

> Society generally moves in the right direction.

Does it? Because it's currently ok to say that "white people suck" and various other overtly racist statements that would have been interpreted as such by society as little as 10 years ago.

Firstly, the context of the quote from my next sentence is that things must be viewed from a distance to see the bend toward justice. Individual setbacks might make it seem incorrect over short periods, but history has generally showed it to be correct.

Secondly, it is not currently ok to say that "white people suck". The huge uproar over that is evidence of such. However, society has decided that saying "white people suck" is inherently different than saying "[any historically repressed minority] sucks". Society has also decided that context of those statements matters. Saying that offhandedly on Twitter as a joke is different than saying it in a campaign speech.

> However, society has decided that saying "white people suck" is inherently different than saying "[any historically repressed minority] sucks". Society has also decided that context of those statements matters.

I think that debate is far from settled.

* "The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends toward justice."*

No, it bends towards wherever it ended up going. Which by some remarkable coincidence, will be whatever most people currently approve of. Equating that with "justice" is a tactic to bash people who don't like whatever change is being discussed, without having to actually explain why that change is good.

Only if there is only one group on HN that votes, which isn't really the case.

Not to mention, don't comment too much, nor go off the norm to foster discussion at all.

Watching the points go up and down on this is interesting

I wrote a script to track my up-votes/down-votes based on time. I've only been running it a few months but I predict that this will get hit hard with down-votes around 4PM GMT and 7PM GMT (assuming this topis is still on the front page by then). Let's see if I'm right.

Edit: Down-voted for trying to make a prediction without even passing judgement on the topic. Funny how that works.

I see dead posts.

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