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Comment by afthonos | Hacker News Reader

As far as I use the term, extremists are people who advocate for tearing the system down via revolution and rebuilding from scratch. They have no idea what it takes to build this modern world, but they love the idea of guillotines.

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Some people complain about taxation on tea or the lack thereof instead of appreciating how privileged they are to have access to Oriental tea.

Not having a representative vote in parliament was kind of annoying, but what do I know

Nitpick & a tangent, but:

Being properly represented in a democratic system is not the same as being able to vote for someone.

Fair enough, the chant as we learned it was “no taxation without representation”, so you win this one. But my point was that it wasn’t just childish tantrums about taxes, it was also about being forced to buy into a monopoly, not getting any say in the matter, having local business blockaded, etc.

For what it’s worth: I wasn’t at all disputing your general argument, just wanted to elaborate on a pet peeve of mine. Cheers!

Those people didn't have abundance at that time, there were many better systems they could pick that they knew about at the time.

Sometimes you actually do need to rewrite the whole project in a new language. FORTRAN just isn't the tool for the job anymore. But you'd still benefit a good deal from being highly suspicious that any person suggesting that course of action is naive to how much time and suffering it will entail.

Arguably, the American revolution wasn't even necessary. A lot of people died as a result. England would have potentially ended slavery decades earlier if the US was still a colony. Canada and Australia wound up in roughly the same spot without a revolution (though possibly as a second order effect of the American revolution).

Why is modern Fortran no longer the right tool for a job?

>FORTRAN just isn't the tool for the job anymore.

This underscores the problem with generalities. I know of some applications that would be considered high-speed (both literally and figuratively, since they are related to rocket testing) that still rely on FORTRAN. So I think your statement needs some qualifies (what kinds of jobs?)

I guess I should have put quotes around that. It was intended as a specific example of when that decision might make sense; you're using the wrong language for the job because it was the best choice when you started the project decades ago. I didn't mean to suggest that FORTRAN is not the tool for any job.

What do you call people who attach speculative pejorative labels to those who dare to suggest that action should be considered because the status quo may be similarly risky?

Don't forget: the status quo is what got us into our various pickles in the first place.

I think most people would consider liberalism rather mainstream.

Depends on your point of view, and what you're referring to.

The word means two different things, depending on your side of the spectrum.

Weird vague-posting.

Are you aware of some mainstream liberalism that didn't kick off with guillotines or muskets? Then make it clear.

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