Hacker News Reader

Comment by xerophtye | Hacker News Reader

So how many HNers actually did send an email or made a call to their representatives?

> "how many HNers [...] made a call to their representatives"

I believe you mean "how many American HNers". On the website, you were asked for an American ZIP code anyway... maybe should have been called thedayamericafighstback.org?

"What is this 'rest of the world' you keep referring to?"

Those are people who do not vote for representatives in the United States, just as people in the United States do not vote for representatives in other countries.

Those people probably carry some weight with American companies with which they may or may not do business, so that's probably their most likely angle of attack to effect change in the US.

I think — I mean, I am not sure, but I strongly believe — that VeejayRampay was simply being ironic.

You may be getting downvoted because he was sarcastic, not ironic.

Yes, but it's that kind of facile sarcasm that doesn't really add much to the conversation, and is so overdone as to not be in any way, shape or form humorous.

I personally found it funny, but I agree with you, it kind of kills the conversation.

Yep, thought of including that clause, then figured it was obvious.

PS: I ain't an American either

No, it's good you didn't. It's like people who insist that you say "It's my opinion that chocolate ice cream is delicious" instead of "Chocolate ice cream is delicious" because it offends their ridiculous sensibilities that someone might actually perceive things from their own perspective. Best to ignore such worthless garbage.

I disagree with you analogy.

From my perspective as from xerophtye's, Americans have American representatives, non-Americans do not. There is no different perception involved.

Thanks for the "worthless garbage" mention, always appreciate it. ;-)

>maybe should have been called thedayamericafighstback.org?

I believe you mean "It is my opinion and I do in fact have the perspective that it maybe should have been called thedayamericafightsback.org?"

So maybe "maybe" was not enough for you?

Or did it really seem like I was calling them on picking the wrong domain name?

Check his other comment to understand what he is emphasizing

What would be the point of sending mail to representatives that don't represent you any more?

At best it's a Monty-pythonesque nod to the system that got us here in the first place. "I'll write a stern letter" or "down with that sort of thing".

Internet activism is at a high level, universally total bullshit.

Breaking things until businesses suffer is the only way people will listen because there is a financial consequence.

Perhaps we should attack the system with a... Banana! (Or a handful of Logan Berries)

> Internet activism is at a high level, universally total bullshit.

I think that not just Internet activism, but political solutions in general are, at high level, universally total bullshit. As you say, the only way people will listen because there is a financial consequence (people are extremely good at selling themselves out of their values). And a way to reliably inflict financial consequence is through business and technology (and occasional media shitstorms, but that doensn't seem to do much anymore), by redefining the optimization landscape people hillclimb right under their feet.

And a way to reliably inflict financial consequence is through business and technology

That's just another way that legislation allows stuff to be manipulated. Why do you think legislators are always all over business and technology? It's a short path to the goal. All that happens is more fuel is added to the fire.

It's gone past "happy happy joy joy" now.

> I think that not just Internet activism, but political solutions in general are, at high level, universally total bullshit.

More specifically political solutions beyond a certain modest scale fit that distinction. All of our political issues are scale issues.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com