Hacker News Reader

Sessionson Trump administration announces overhaul of H1B visa program requiring higher pay

That is an entirely different point than the one you made in your previous response.

Sessionson The greatest privilege we never talk about: beauty

The title is not saying 'this is the greatest privilege of all, and we don't talk about it'- it's saying 'among the privileges we don't talk about, this is the greatest.'

Still might not be true, but it's less hyperbolic.

Sessionson Slate Star Codex and Silicon Valley’s War Against the Media

Agreed. A handful of sentences were completely unfair, and they've been rightly criticized in other comments. But it's a very long piece, and the majority of it came off as reserved and even-handed. I've seen hit pieces, this is not one of them.

Sessionson YouTube deleted an electronics repair channel [video]

I don't think gp was claiming that all religious beliefs are false and all religious videos should be removed under this standard; or at least that's not the claim I'm making. I'm saying many religious traditions explicitly promote falsehoods as facts, and videos that espouse those teachings should be removed, if we follow this standard.

Sessionson YouTube deleted an electronics repair channel [video]

There are plenty of bible literalist traditions that present falsifiable events/ideas as historical facts. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_Earth_creationism.

Sessionson The Cities Taking Up Calls to Defund the Police

https://newrepublic.com/article/158104/rush-redefine-defund-... The meaning is not a settled question.

Sessionson Twitter “Silenced” Dissenting Voices During Protests in Egypt: Research

If you insist that it is 'advertising' that is the cause of this malaise, then you must agree that 'advertising' is not compatible with modern free democtratic societies and needs to be made illegal

That's a leap. A quote that's always stuck with me: "It's important to recognise one of the catastrophist's rhetorical moves: Stories of doom thrive on turning a tension into an incompatibility."

It's more useful to think of the conversation we're having as the ongoing negotiation of a long-standing tension, with social media providing a new wrinkle.

Sessionson Gitlab: don't discuss politics at work

This is not true. Left/Right and Authoritarian/Liberty are separate and overlapping spectrums. Pick your favorite post-communist-revolution country as an example of Left-authoritarianism.

Sessionson Have Online Reviews Lost All Value?

Negative reviews can also be compromised. I was reading through Borderlands 3 metacritic user reviews when I noticed at least 3 reviewers made identical complaints of boring, "repeative" gameplay... My best guess is it's attracted a culture war brigade for some reason. But it was a good a reminder to keep my guard up even on negative reviews- the same sockpuppets companies use to pump up their own products could be easily redeployed to undermine a competitor's.

Sessionson Say Hello to Rick Ross

That made me double-take. That people accept it at face-value as a suicide seems a little bizarre to me, given the subject. "Oh, well, the coroner's office said so."

Sessionson Facebook use 'makes people feel worse about themselves'

A worthwhile read in the same vein

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/05/is-faceb...

Sessionson U.S. government recognizes gamers as athletes

I've actually been watching the current LCS despite not playing LoL for a while (it was too addictive).

Games spectatorship pushes all the same buttons that real sports do, and Riot is very intelligently pushing it in the same direction, with the excitable commentators and highlighting the personalities of the top players.

The kids are making money by training to be the best at something that is fun to watch, and businesses are making money off marketing them. Seems analogous to sports in the important ways.