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Comment by zahlman | Hacker News Reader

> Nothing on that page is particularly political from any position but a substantially polarized one.

For example:

> The history of computing is deeply intertwined with capitalism and militarism.

To assert this as if it were significant, and continue on as the article does, is inherently making a political statement. It is trying to paint capitalism and militarism as inherently bad, and draw ingroup/outgroup lines in the sand. There is no reason why a capitalist or a military supporter might fail to see the value in more efficient computing, or in environmentalism generally.

There's also, you know, all the stuff it says on the main page of the site.

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They didn’t assert it as if it were significant, they asserted it as if it were fact. Which, let’s be clear, it is. And no sufficiently informed person could argue otherwise, given that the historical development of computing was driven, in its entirety, by the needs of, and investments made by, businesses and militaries. The early development of computing cannot be anything but intertwined with the nature of its early developers, which form the foundation upon which all further historical (and political) development of computing must stand. You’re supplying the idea that recognizing this basic, ground truth, and really ludicrously obvious fact is also casting those foundations as “inherently bad”.

Also capitalism is not comprised exclusively of capitalists, any more than militarism is composed exclusively of military supporters. Capitalism is a political framework centered on economic power, militarism is a political framework centered on martial power, both of them are ways of understanding the cultural and political and economic and rational systems we all live within, whether we support them or not.

Nothing on the linked page says anything particularly supportive or pejorative about those frameworks, it just acknowledges them as foundational to computing. It arguably makes a very (if not inherently) capitalist argument for environmental-conserving usage of computing resources, but that, really, is about it.

Anything else you’re supplying, from your perspective… my point is that such a perspective is, itself, already polarized.

> They didn’t assert it as if it were significant, they asserted it as if it were fact.

The same people who wish to tell me that "everything is political", will apparently not recognize the significance of choosing to do something when it clearly would have been easier not to do so.

The fact that the assertion is present demonstrates the imputed significance. Writing it is about making implications and value judgments, because it cannot serve another purpose in context, and it would be easier to say nothing.

Somewhat ironic that you think it would be easier to do nothing when that section is specifically asking people to consider doing nothing when doing something unnecessary with computing resources would necessarily be harmful.

Now, I might also be doing redundant work here, and maybe it’s not worth doing so, but I should think that anyone on any part of the political spectrum could find some pretty egregious examples of waste and inefficiency in the military / industrial complex.

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