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Comment by orthecreedence | Hacker News Reader

> twitter thread that started this

Jesus can we just burn Twitter to the ground already? What a wasteland of morons with useless opinions it is.

I don't think the problem is with twitter here. Let people have opinions, even if you think they are useless. They are opinions after all. Your issue should be with the maintainers who will remove any content on the slightest objection to it in a bid to do the "right" thing by whatever group of people got offended by it.

I mean the whole thing is a total non-issue. Someone writes a silly screed in docs, someone notices it and points it out, maintainers of a project that wants some semblance of professionalism remove dumb screed.

As a maintainer I wouldn’t even remove it for content but just because it’s clearly a detriment to the document.

Aren't you engaging in victim-blaming here? Shouldn't you be blaming the mob, not the individual maintainer giving in to the mob?

I think we should be blaming anyone who complies with the mob, since that is the only thing that gives the mob power. If everyone just ignored them, this phenomenon would peter out quite fast.

Don't underestimate the power of a mob, even an internet mob. They can and have done a lot of damage to people, even those who don't directly engage with them (especially when they attack those who don't have a lot of individual power: ironically while those who participate in them seem to have a sense of 'punching up', they can only hurt those for which they are as a collective punching down).

But they can only do damage as long as HR departments and conference organizers and whatnot bow to the demands of people on twitter. Of course they have done a lot of damage but almost all of it indirectly. The people who actually execute on it in meatspace are at least as much to blame, IMO.

Welcome to democracy :D

It used to be that you could be a bit selective with your circle of friends and you would only have to deal with "less capable" people in family meetings a couple of times a year because you don't get to choose those.

And since they could barely operate a computer there was some natural barrier of entry that kept these people away from the internet. Then phones and apps happened and the all flooded to social media and here we are. They come from all sides of the political spectrum, so pretty much the only way to avoid them is to stay off social media.

yes, please, stay off social media

I would love to, but then who will drive people away from the big, diluted platforms?

while I appreciate your sense of sacrifice I'd rather see you lead by example and find peers in a social network that fits your preferences.

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