Hacker News Reader

People avoid calling themselves -ist-s because when you identify yourself with a group you're bringing on to yourself a series of judgments spanning the other person's entire experience with that group. To abuse the saying, "you don't know where that's been."

View on HN

I do not like defining myself with '-ists'. Instead I will generally refer to the '-ism' and point out where I agree and where I differ.

I have found this position has the side-effect of being an easy way to spot who is just playing team sports with philosophies. They are the folk who get really angry with people who agree with them on specifics, purely for not using a subject label self-referentially.

Personally, I'd rather be bold and let people associate me with the title they don't like. At least then they may have an opportunity to question their assumptions.

If the last neo-vefaminist they met was a great person, you'd be free-riding on a reputation that you hadn't earned yet. If the last neo-vefaminist they met was a terrible person (potentially someone who was free-riding on the name), and if you call yourself a neo-vefaminist, you're communicating to them that you're a terrible person which would be incorrect because you aren't.

I'd rather expect that they will question you long before their own assumptions.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com