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Comment by cato_the_elder | Hacker News Reader

The guy has turned into a composer of polemics. [1]

[1]: e.g. https://mobile.twitter.com/doctorow/status/14664570728711249...

You say that like it's a bad thing.

This is completely unrelated to what is under discussion and an extreme-right dogwhistle besides. Surely you can do better?

I'm suggesting his new book is also probably full of polemics.

I used to like him when I was younger, and have fond memories of reading one of his novels (Little Brother [1]) as a teenager.

[1]: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Brother_(Doctorow_nov...

The (bias) issues with crime statistics are well-documented and well-understood (even within actual police and secret service agencies). This is not polemic - what is polemic is how to fix that (and whether or not we should, given that the police is generally of the opinion that "it works acceptably so we should not fix it further"), which this chain doesn't really touch upon.

The polemic part is that he's says driving as a non-white person is a de facto crime in the US, which is of course utterly untrue. As a non-white person, I'm sure I would've known if that was the case.

(Also, I had linked to the wrong tweet in the thread. I've corrected it now.)

I don't see anything controversial with that statement. I think that you are mixing de jure and de facto.

No, I'm not. It's clearly not a de facto crime. How many non-white Americans get sentenced merely because of driving?

De Facto describes situations that exist in reality (in fact), even if they are not legally recognised. Sundown towns exist in reality regardless of the law, and non-whites driving through them can face harassment and even arrest or prosecution for no other reason than being non-white while driving. The reason given for the arrest or prosecution will be a book crime, but that's not the actual factual (de facto) reason for it happening.

> driving through them can face

As De Facto as getting hit by lightning. Let's leave the polemics out.

> How many non-white Americans get sentenced merely because of driving?

Arresting non-white Americans merely for driving isn't de jure but your question presuppose that it is or that someone her is claiming that it is(nobody is). Can't get any more obvious that you are mixing de jure and de facto.

I like Cory, he isn't just a leftist but what I would call sjw light so I usually take everything coming from him with a big chunk of salt

> and an extreme-right dogwhistle besides

What do you mean? Why extreme right, and what, exactly, is a dogwhistle (i.e. the code word/phrase) in the parent comment?

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