Comment by rtpg | Hacker News Reader

Comment by rtpg | Hacker News Reader

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Why is it that when HN talks about the TempleOS guy, we're all careful with our terminology, but now we're totally cool to call this person "fucking crazy"?

I get that in the former, the man fits the mold of "misunderstood bit-twiddling genius" or related mythologies of the craft, but the latter is no less of a person. Show some humanity.

Besides, what did putting this person in 2 months of jail do? I doubt this accomplished anything other than spending more of taxpayers dollars. If she's "fucking crazy", then do you think 2 months of jail is a deterrent to stalking somebody? Or just something to make sure she's more careful when stalking?

Throwing people with mental illnesses into jail is as effective as spanking a baby. Sure, they might be conditioned to associate certain behaviour with punishment. But it won't fix underlying causes like behavioural patterns, addiction, or value systems.

The comment you're replying to is word-for-word copied from a highly upvoted comment on reddit yesterday (but is now deleted) by a user with a handle I won't repeat here. [1]

So what you're seeing is cross-pollination. I'm honestly surprised to not see this comment down-voted, as it's pretty impertinent to the conversation and is textbook ad hominem. ("Crazy lady says prisons are terrible: who cares she's crazy").

[1] http://www.reddit.com/r/TwoXChromosomes/comments/2r7y8h/when.... You can see it with something like http://uneddit.com/

edit: oh, I see my second paragraph basically did happen already in some flagkilled posts.

TempleOS doesn't victimize people; stalkers do.

templeOS guy hasn't stalked anyone?

Bingo

> Why is it ...

Because it fits the gender stereotypes people use. Male stalkers don't need to be attributed as crazy, since all males are portrayed in culture as stalking rapists. A female stalker cant' be directly explained by her gender, so the attribute "crazy" is used instead, which then fits into an other gender stereotype.

What? When is a stalker ever not referred to as crazy? I've heard about plenty of stalkers of either gender, and while male stalkers are portrayed as more dangerous I have not seen them portrayed as any less 'crazy'.

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