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>We know you hate us. It's the main message we receive every time we turn on the TV or any mainstream silicon valley website, including this one, again. That's why I post with a throwaway name. I don't expect people who hate us to represent us fairly.

It's unfortunate that you paint most of the the US with such a broad brush when complaining that those folks are painting you with a broad brush. I hope you can see the irony there.

I learned as a child that treating others as individuals is incredibly important. Mostly because it became clear that most folks (of every stripe) are decent human beings, but that there are a small number of people who are assholes.

The big problem with that small number of folks is that they aren't one particular group (whether that be geographic origin, ethnicity, melanin content, gender or profession, etc., etc., etc.). Rather they are pretty evenly distributed throughout society.

That allows people to point at those very few and ascribe their shortcomings to everyone in a particular group or groups.

The long and short of it is that, no "we" don't hate "you." In fact, most folks don't really care much (except in a general, "care about other human beings") one way or another about you or your fellow Texans.

Having spent time in Texas (I'm from the Northeast), I've found that just about everyone I've met in (or who is from) Texas are decent, kind human beings.

I suspect you'd be much happier if you were less concerned with what other folks think about you, and focused on living a decent life instead of shitting on people you don't know.

Just a crazy thought.

I'm used to this treatment by the media and by people I interact with as a professional software engineer

Are the actual groups of people they’ve painted which doesn’t make for a particularly broad brush and certainly doesn’t include “most of the US”.

It’s unfortunate that you spend 7 paragraphs explaining a basic concept most children are indeed aware of while the person you’re replying to complains about that exact behavior. I hope you can see the irony there.

I suspect you’d be much more effective if you were less concerned with acting out a stereotype, and focused on reading the comment you’re replying to and addressing their point about bias in the media, and software industries.

>I suspect you’d be much more effective

Effective at what, exactly?

I expressed my thoughts WRT the comment to which I replied. I just re-read my comment and I said exactly what I wanted to say.

As far as I'm concerned, that's the "effectiveness" I was going for, and have achieved same.

Thanks for your advice, I'll give it the weight and influence to which it's due.

I apologize, given the message of the comment and how personally addressed it was throughout, I had thought you’d meant to have a conversation with someone other than yourself.

>I apologize, given the message of the comment and how personally addressed it was throughout, I had thought you’d meant to have a conversation with someone other than yourself.

No apology is necessary or even slightly warranted. You expressed yourself clearly and, as I mentioned, I appreciate your point of view.

While you may (and I have no issue with that) disagree with my assessment, you appear to have ascribed some sort of broad-based attempt on my part to convince or "win over" some segment of HN readers to my point of view.

That's not the case. My goal was to express my thoughts. I did so. As such, my effort was (as I mentioned) quite effective in achieving my goal.

Whether or not that sparks further discussion isn't incredibly important to me, although I certainly have no problem having a conversation about the subject.

I disagree with your assessment that GP[0] was addressing their belief that "we hate" them to some narrow group in the US. Given the reach of "the media" and "mainstream silicon valley websites", it seems obvious that GP was, in fact, painting a huge swathe of the US population with a broad brush.

Given the DAUs of such "mainstream silicon valley websites" like Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, etc., as well as the broad reach of "the media" (newspapers, TV/radio networks, etc.), I don't see how GP's statement could be interpreted otherwise.

I'd be interested to understand the logic that leads you to a different conclusion. Thanks!

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=26206567

Edit: Added the "missing link."

> Given the reach of "the media" and "mainstream silicon valley websites"

Their reach isn't the point, it's their source. Another name for the group/phenoma they're referring to is "coastal elites", who use the derogatory term "flyover states" to refer to where OP is from.

I didn't realize that every post on twitter, Facebook and Reddit was exclusively posted by the owners of said sites. Oh, wait.

I'd also point out that almost 40% of the US population live in coastline counties[0]. So even if the OP's claim is that "those on the coasts hate" Texans, that's still painting an enormous group (~127 million people) with the same broad brush.

[0] https://oceanservice.noaa.gov/facts/population.html

> Another name for the group/phenoma they're referring to is "coastal elites", who use the derogatory term "flyover states" to refer to where OP is from.

The term "flyover state" is not necessarily a derrogatory term, but a way for citizens of said states to underline an artificial division between rural central regions and urban coastal regions.

In fact, the "flyover" nature of said regions is due to the sparsely populated and low density of those territories, not because of some disdain towards inhabitants of rural regions.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flyover_country

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_states_and_territories...

> Just a crazy thought.

Well said. It's a shame that basic things like the importance of treating everyone with respect is required to be reinforced in public forums.

> ERCOT has more stringent regulations on winterization

Those are voluntary though.

It was inevitable that someone would say the problem was that it wasn't deregulated enough, but let's at least stick to what's known. "Instead of taking any regulatory action, we ended up getting guidelines that were unenforceable and largely ignored in [power companies’] rush for profits," https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/17/texas-power-grid-fai...

> Those are voluntary though.

It should be made quite clear that "voluntary" regulation is no regulation at all, but mere suggestions and tips that anyone is free to follow or ignore.

Thus, citing ERCOT is pointless, and would make as much sense as citing regulations of Kazakhstan as they are enforced with the same rigour and result in the same penalties.

"According to a post here on HN a couple of days ago, ERCOT has more stringent regulations on winterization than the Federal regulatory body requires, so basically everything you just said is bullshit"

This a lie. The regulations are voluntary.

"ERCOT is a government regulated group, answerable to the Legislature. It's not meaningfully different from the rest of the country."

Except this is also a lie as Ercot as no power to enforce any of its regulations which is not the way utilities run in the rest of the country.

"People just assume Texas is a completely unregulated market because of the reputation given to us by Hollywood. Unsurprisingly, media created in a region that disdains us does not represent us truthfully or fairly."

This is a typical attempt to create a state of victimhood in order shift focus away from the obvious failure of a Republican controlled state onto meaningless culture wars.

"I grew up in Appalachia so I'm used to this treatment by the media and by people I interact with as a professional software engineer, including on this board, about where I came from and where I chose to make my home."

Irrelevant to the topic at hand. Your personal experiences in this matter have nothing to do with the failures in the Texas energy grid. You are doubling down on perceived victimhood in lieu of an actual argument.

"We know you hate us. It's the main message we receive every time we turn on the TV or any mainstream silicon valley website, including this one, again. That's why I post with a throwaway name. I don't expect people who hate us to represent us fairly."

And this was the goal of the comment, specifically overriding any consideration of criticism by attacking the motives of the critic. This is as simple as it is disingenuous.

That reputation doesn't come from Hollywood, it comes from Texas. Anyone who's been to the state knows how proud the culture is of its wild-west rural outlaw image.

You're right that it isn't entirely accurate, because Texas is a diverse state bigger than some countries, but being the quirky cowboy state is a lot better for tourism than being the... like... corn state or... whatever the hell a "Sooner" is. Some sort of groundhog I imagine.

> whatever the hell a "Sooner" is

The US decided to sell the land in most of Oklahoma (the parts that weren't Indian territory, in any case) by land rushes. You would line up at the county border, a starting gun would be fired, and the first person to claim a plot of land would get it. Sooners are the people who were in the county before the starting gun was fired, letting them (illegally) claim the land before anyone who was honest and started at the starting line.

(Side note: my great-great grandfather was in one of the Oklahoma land rushes, but lost the land he wanted to a Sooner.)

"Sooner" - the bain of UT football existence now that TAMU is playing with the big boys.

"According to a post here on HN a couple of days ago, ERCOT has more stringent regulations on winterization than the Federal regulatory body requires, so basically everything you just said is bullshit"

Do you have a link to this claim? If this is true what does enforcement of those regulations look like in Texas?

For comparison, THC is still schedule 1 drug according to federal regulations but weed is also a multi-billion dollar industry in states that ignore those regulations. Whats on the books often matters less than what is actually enforced.

Found it. The guidelines mentioned in the parent comment are voluntary. As I stated enforcement matters and in the Texas case there was none. However, in this case the Texas reputation for willful ignorance in the face of honest criticism is well earned. Oh and by the way El Paso's electricity provider didn't have problems, why? They aren't governed by Ercot and their voluntary regulations. El Paso is part of the western international grid and did perform winterization work as required. Outcomes matter not political platitudes.

https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02/17/texas-power-grid-fai...

> According to a post here on HN a couple of days ago, ERCOT has more stringent regulations on winterization than the Federal regulatory body requires, so basically everything you just said is bullshit

Do you have a source for this? The entire purpose for Texas independent grid is to avoid federal regulation, so I find this hard to believe.

Also, the idea that democrats hate you is mostly from the right and IMO incorrect. Many on the left hate Trump, just like people on the right hate AOC. But that doesn't extend to the average person.

Right leaning media in the US is notorious for fear based reporting. You don't have to look far to see that there's no left leaning equivalence to Rush Limbaugh, Alex Jones, Tucker Carlson, and similar right wing icons that sell news largely on fear and outrage. They sell views based on the idea that democrats are destroying America. This is also the basis of the Tea Party, Pizza gate, and QAnon which also have no left equivalent.

There's a reason why most mainstream media is sedate and frankly boring. Democrats are the party of change, and Republicans have to keep their base afraid so they go vote against it. A lot more Republicans think democrats hate them than the other way around. Because Republicans need it that way to be competitive.

I used to be a republican until I got tired of the constant fear porn. Democrats have been in charge for a large part of my life and the only thing to directly effect me was the ACA which turned out to be a net positive in my life. Nothing scary the Republican pundits always raged about came to pass and I got tired of always being worried about the next big disaster that never came.