There's no substance to the tweet. It wouldn't appear on HN except for the person that posted it. It's hard to see how something like this is going to generate useful discussion.
In a similar way, advertising people have to believe that their company matters a great deal. Even if it's just Drakar Noir for a younger generation.
I don't know what Paul's excuse is. Then again, I send stuff out into the universe all the time with no expectation of people actually acting on it. Sometimes, as they say, you need to get something outside of your head so it's not inside anymore (so you can stop dwelling on it).
It's time to #AbolishCopyright and #AbolishPatents.
Tear down the walls that keep information in the hands of the 1% and keep the masses in the dark.
(Speaking as someone who could live quite comfortably in the 1% but doesn't feel it is right)
The OP wasn't paying attention to important context. It would be like if someone at Reagan's speech said,
"There's no substance to that line. It wouldn't have been on TV except for the person who said it. It's hard to see how something like this is going to generate useful discussion. Is it the color of the wall or the dimensions of the wall that he has a problem with?"
PG, a man with a huge reach, nothing to gain (and a lot to lose) from taking a stand on such a controversial issue that the public is far from knowing what the just side is, who doesn't mince words and thinks deeply about topics until he arrives at the truth, just came out and stated his support for Sci-Hub. Beyond the practical matter that he is at least an acquaintence of @jack's, perhaps even a friend (I have no knowledge of their relationship, other than I had a YC dinner a long time ago with them), and this might lead to @Sci_hub's reinstatement, it is an inspirational message for those of us who are fighting so that every child has access to the world's best information. YMMV, but I personally would consider the abolition of copyrights and patents to be bigger than the reunification of Germany in the long run.
Context matters. The substance is deep.
They didn't actually mean tear it down now, they meant we should form a committee to discuss a plan to fund a study to determine how you'd go about tearing down the wall.
Then some busybodies showed up with crowbars and hammer drills and concrete saws and it was just chaos in the streets.
#cancel_pg