Comment by branon | Hacker News Reader

Comment by branon | Hacker News Reader

Nice. I've always been a firm believer that you haven't _really_ left a platform unless you first make a blog post loudly proclaiming that you're _definitely leaving_ but this guy takes it a few steps further by:

- keeping his account active, poised to return immediately (but still, definitely leaving)

- maybe posting on Twitter occasionally to point people to ongoing resources (but still, definitely leaving)

- highlighting how moderation on Mastodon varies by instance, which pressures certain groups to return to Twitter (the place he's definitely left, remember?)

If Elon's alt-right, you're alt-left, and I don't believe either is true. Your posts are also not unpaid contributions (or if they are, then they were back when Twitter was public, too, but somehow that was okay). It takes some serious arrogance and mental gymnastics to even arrive at such a conclusion. I'd pay you to NOT post.

Shut up already, you're several weeks late to this particular bandwagon anyway.

> Nice. I've always been a firm believer that you haven't _really_ left a platform unless you first make a blog post loudly proclaiming that you're _definitely leaving_ but this guy takes it a few steps further by:

"This guy" is Tim Bray, who quit as a VP of AWS over its treatment of employees:

* https://www.cbc.ca/news/business/tim-bray-quit-amazon-web-se...

* https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/202x/2020/04/29/Leaving-A...

> Bray, who was born in Alberta, went to University of Guelph and who worked in Vancouver, was a distinguished engineer, a coveted title large tech companies award to senior technologists. The decision will likely cost him more than $1 million in loss of salary and unvested Amazon stock, “not to mention the best job I ever had,” he said.

* https://financialpost.com/news/retail-marketing/amazon-engin...

Dude co-authored both the XML spec and the JSON spec (RFC 7159/8259):

* https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Bray

He has principles and he's willing to put himself out there for them.

> He has principles and he's willing to put himself out there for them.

He thinks that Twitter is despicable but will still continue to use it to promote his blog. That's not having principles and sticking to them. That's selling out for cheap, and coming up with a lame justification for it.

He's been writing his weblog since before Twitter existed:

* https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/199x/

* https://www.tbray.org/ongoing/When/200x/

He doesn't need (to use) Twitter to promote anything. If he was willing to sell out, cheaply or not, he would have kept his AWS job.

Of course he doesn't need to use Twitter to promote his blog. But it is what he is doing, as per the article:

> I’ll still use Twitter to post pointers to ongoing pieces because that benefits me, not Elon.

And that's exactly what makes it selling out for cheap. He doesn't need the traffic; it's not like it's providing his livelihood or anything. But just going by his actions, he still cares more about those hits than about his supposed principles.

I am increasingly shocked that how mainstream traditional mainstreet political views are now viewed as "alt-right" online by the perpetual online class

If Elon is alt-right then 85% of the US population is "alt-right"

Curious how you got to 85%?

It’s republican “silent majority” bs. They lose elections but tell themselves everyone secretly agrees with them so they don’t have to change their ideas.

It's the same road that conflates support for essential reproductive rights with promoting "late-term elective abortions".

Extracted it directly from an orifice most likely.

The man literally promoted the idea that Nancy Pelosi's husband was attacked because he visits gay bars, or something.

How is that not alt-right?

Yet, I fear you may be correct about that 85% statistic, nevertheless.

Well I agree he needs to take some time to vett news sources as his (correct) position that more traditional news (like CNN, AP, etc) can not be trusted before tweeting out links, which he deleted shortly there after, I do not call that "promoted" but today words have no meaning so sure.

This is the think impossible standard to have, and one of the reason many people like Elon is the fact he has no filter, and gives no fucks. Elon streams his thoughts in real time almost to twitter. That to many is refreshing to have a Billionaire engage engage on that level, not filtered through PR and Lawyers like the Gates and Bezo's of the world..

Elon will post a poll then act on the poll. I know many hate that, but many many many LOVE that.

In short, it is a type of Populism.

The article he posted was clearly some Weekly World News type beat. For real, go read the article. It reads like an infomercial designed to scam boomers. I think Elon is just like many other fried boomers believing things that are obviously untrue because random website meta tag says so while reinforcing his previous views.

Would you like to guess some other historical figures that were populists?

Unfiltered leaders tend to age like milk.

I keep thinking about how I disagreed with this comment before I even finished reading the username, 'phpisthebest'.

I've been thinking for hours about red-state vs blue-state coding and platform tastes. I bet that in the future, the platform wars and the culture wars will merge, and there will be a stack that is more likely to be used by a startup in (say) Florida, vs a stack that screams left-coast. Like how much do you want to bet that the new Twitter walks back from Scala, embracing straight-up Java? ...And all you have to do is go to a Rust meetup to see how that language has strong roots in specific communities, but not in others. (Specifically, I can report that it's the language of choice for me and my LGBTQ friends)

Imagine a future where there are several competing ideologically- (or even theologically-) fused stacks, promoted by companies that sotto-voce act as intellectual caretakers of the political ideology in question, funding friendly politicians and even nation-states, connected directly to banks and payment modalities, structuring towering billions in investment, all of it carefully calibrated to promote not just an API, or a language, but a whole worldview.

I mean, having typed that, it basically just sounds like the present moment, but as described by some prescient eighties cyberpunk novel.

What mainstream political views are you seeing cast as alt-right by the chronically online?

Traditional family values (not christian) but traditional nuclear family, traditional job / working to provide for a family, traditional parenting, etc.

Anyone that does not have the term "CIS" in their vocabulary is called "alt-right" online

If "traditional nuclear family" is a euphemism for anti gay marriage, that's closer to the opposite of 85% in the US these days. Even so I've never heard that given as a sufficient reason to identify someone as alt right, although YMMV.

I've never heard of these things as being 'alt-right.' If, anything the ability to have a 'traditional' family with a single wage earner and a full-time homemaker mother is simply an overt mark of privilege (because who else can afford to raise a family on a single income in this century?), not a mark of being right-wing.

If you're saying that other, non-traditional family structures are something degenerate, yes, you're alt-right, but I think if you're doing that you already embrace that label.

Then you clearly did not spend much time on pre-elon twitter where it was often the case.

Infact more than one story has been posted on Twitter calling the "'traditional' family with a single wage earner and a full-time homemaker mother" actively dangerous to women in general and something that should not only be advocated against but actively resisted.

I've spent a lot of time on twitter, and I've never seen it. I have seen a lot of "martyrdom" though.

E.g.: I don't like Elon Musk. According to Fox News, I'm a pinko commie that hates America.

Nothing you have said is anything other than 1980's conservatism.

What I find sad is that back in the 1980's conservatives still tried to ground their beliefs with intellectual arguments.

Twitter is so full of random takes on anything that of course you can find 'more than one' take on some weird idea. However, the dominant feminist stance on twitter and everywhere is overwhelmingly that women should have the freedom to be in the workforce or be a full-time homemaker, they just shouldn't be arbitrarily shoved into the homemaker role by society.

Elon’s behavior in no ways aligns with traditional family values. Dude has children with multiple women and I believe his step mother is also his step sister or something like that.

That’s part of a deliberate effort to shift the Overton window.

It wasn’t that long ago that being against illegal immigration, against late term elective abortions, and in favor of an individual to bear arms was acceptable to proclaim public. But now those are all “alt-right”.

The recent election results suggest that 85% of the population didn't entertain right-wing grifter conspiracy theories about the attack on Paul Pelosi. Does that make Elon Musk relatively "alt-right", or just relatively gullible?

Musk argued that Nancy Pelosi's husband was beaten by a gay lover to downplay the fact that a crazy far-right nutjob broke into their home and beat an elderly man with a hammer while demanding to see the Speaker of the House.

That's pretty disgusting.

Tons of people on the left cheered on rand paul's neighbor when paul was violently attacked and seriously injured.

Please don’t do whataboutism. Your comment divides and derails the conversation and assumes the worst of the people here who might have a problem with Elon’s behavior (that they also want people to get assaulted because of their political views).

> to downplay the fact

We have no clue about Musk's intention here.

It's not whataboutism rather I know for a fact how certain people respond to left-wing violence and it's always either ignorance or very charitable interpretations.

Elon has interacted frequently and positively on Twitter in the last few weeks with alt-right figures like Ian Miles Cheong and Andy Ngo, e.g. agreeing that the slogan "hands up, don't shoot" is somehow a "lie", and retweeted a weird homophobic conspiracy theory about Paul Pelosi almost immediately after completing the acquisition. I don't think there was good (public) reason to believe these were his politics a year ago, but it seems that he's either shifted or made a deliberate cynical decision to court them to build the userbase. (And little about the Twitter acquisition has seemed that planned.)

>> agreeing that the slogan "hands up, don't shoot" is somehow a "lie"

I guess I (a left libertarian) that put facts over narrative is now "alt-right" then because having actually read all of the Investigative reports from the DOJ, and state agencies one has to conclude if not a "lie" a HUGE distortion from the actual truth of the events.

Hm, those are not traditional mainstream political views, unless of course it aligns with your own views, then it would look like they are right?. I've gone through Elon's replies on Twitter and he is purposely trying to make the left mad, it's pretty obvious. Does he want to stir the pot for engagement? increase traffic? maybe, who knows, but whatever it is, he's picking up meaningless fights that side with alt-right views which by the way love the hate-speech and the whole conspiracy theory thing. So yeah, recently Twitter is (from my point of view) just more people fighting about their political views because of Elon's controversial responses.

> keeping his account active, poised to return immediately (but still, definitely leaving)

Note that when you delete your account, the handle becomes free to be reused 30 days after, at the risk of someone trying to impersonate him. It's better to leave the account stagnant or "protected" than delete it in this case, and simply point to his Mastodon account in a tweet, his display name or his bio.

You don't believe Elon's alt-right, but most of his replies side with alt-right...

He’s given a perfectly fine post on what he is doing. He actually would prefer to be on Twitter.

Telling him to “shut up” and that he is “late to this particular bandwagon” seems mildly abusive.

> keeping his account active

Considering how easy it is to impersonate people on twitter, this makes sense.

> If Elon's alt-right, you're alt-left

This is a hilariously nonsensical sentence.

“If you don’t like my hero’s politics, there is only one set of politics that you could have! There are only people that love his posts and antifa super soldiers high on estrogen blockers plotting to take down capitalism with their polycule!”

Buddy do you remember the other day when he posted a baseless alt-right conspiracy theory about Nancy Pelosi’s husband being in a sexual relationship with the guy that attacked him?

It was almost like… alt-right… trolling

Ouch, that was brutal

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