rnernento

If everyone's beliefs are unchangeable what is the danger of open forums for discussion? I think if you really want to combat this ideology it needs to be done with rational discussion instead of terminating the discussion. If we concede that many of these people were seduced by these ideologies on these sites and didn't initially hold these beliefs (which is one of the reasons these sites are considered so dangerous) don't we have to also concede that they could be swayed back.

How do you know I'm not? Why would you expect to be more successful on hacker news than one of those open forums?

To me it's a lot like blaming the violence on video games, and I'm not even saying they aren't a cause, they just aren't the most important cause right now. This is not an unsolvable problem, we're just getting bogged down on the wrong things when we NEED to laser focus efforts on the biggest problems first. Rather than pat ourselves on the back for taking down what is basically just an open forum for communication we need to focus on bipartisan legislative measures to address mental healthcare deficiencies and at least make it a little harder for people to get a gun.

I don't get why it's so easy for "bad" people on the site to manipulate people into subscribing to these hateful ideologies but it's impossible for "good" people to pull them back out.

I strongly believe forcing them further underground will only result in more violence long term.

Yeah they just downvote you into oblivion so no one can even read what you wrote. Oh wait...

What makes you say it's unchecked though? These are anonymous imageboards where ANYONE can say ANYTHING, there isn't anything stopping you from challenging them?

Part of me wonders if we should be taking better advantage of this opportunity to reach out the people posting. Mental illness is clearly in play, but can't we as a society do better? We should be reaching out to these people and at least trying to wrestle them back to sanity.

I think if anyone really believes shutting down a bunch of open forums will reduce the number of mass shootings they are delusional. This is a mental health issue AND a gun control issue and that's where we should focus efforts.

A lot of really smart people see the traps associated with "success" at high levels. Even if you're good at everything it's still a significant effort to rise to the top in most fields.

Also, to put all this in context I would say that humanity overall is failing pretty hard right now. We're basically destroying the planet and treating the vast majority of the global population like shit. "Success" is relative...

Honestly I don't think the smart evil people are the problem. I think the fact that society is in general pretty good is strong evidence that they are outnumbered. I believe most people want to be good. I also thing the smart evil people are more likely to want to manipulate others than the smart good people. That's why a burgeoning population of people who are easily manipulated is such a problem.

I'm definitely torn on this one, I hope you're right. Part of me thinks it's a combination of things though, also remember what the article this comment was on indicates. IQs are dropping in developed countries.

You're making this about republicans vs democrats. No idea why. My whole point is that politicians on both sides of the aisle are terrible and one of the reasons we have terrible politicians is because the general populace doesn't vote for them for the right reasons. Ad campaigns shouldn't be as effective as the are. Corruption is easily seen, it should be punished by the voters. The vast majority of the voting public is willfully ignorant.

I wonder when we're going to collectively realize that this epidemic of stupidity is by far the greatest threat facing humanity. It's the reason we're having so much trouble addressing all our other problems, e.g. corrupt government, climate change, etc...

It's interesting that if you google her this comes up: https://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/30/style/modern-love-my-biol...

All I would say to this is that there are plenty of very successful companies that I do not consider predatory.

A $10 ticket to Avengers:Endgame is a downright bargain, so is $15 a month for HBO.

I give $60+ dollars on the regular to companies like Rockstar and From Software with a huge smile on my face and then line up to do it again.

It is very possible to be successful and not rely on predatory practices. I think part of the problem is that as a society it is our responsibility collectively to punish the true predators. We seem to be getting worse and worse at this and the predators seem to be getting hungrier and hungrier...

Not trying to be mean here but don't you think some of these backers might have serious issues. The promise of an infinite alternate reality in space that will be everything you want it to be is alluring, especially to people who aren't having the greatest run in the real world. I think this is predatory and terrible.

I love video games, I love the escapism, I love nerd culture. People willing to pay $1000 for a virtual spaceship are people I care about, and they deserve better.

There seems to be a tremendous opportunity in higher education right now. Costs are out of control, administrative positions like this will eventually result in lower quality education and likely less successful graduates. An institute that truly values and teaches critical thinking while minimizing costs could change the world.

I'm not sure why you're so against any sort of action here, but I am sure that that attitude is part of the reason we should be worried.

Why are you assuming I want to force solar and wind? What if I'm a huge proponent of nuclear power? What if I don't have a solution. What if I'm just trying to point out that we're in trouble.

"It's much more responsible to keep using the resources we have, become better at utilizing them keep developing new methods."

Can you explain this fully. What specifically are you planning we do? How will that correlate to the rise in global temperatures.

I know this is xkcd but I think it's pretty effective at conveying what we're up against: https://xkcd.com/1732/

50% was an arbitrary percentage, does it matter? My point was where do you draw the line? My thought is that a billion people dying constitutes a threat to humanity. The reality is we don't know exactly how we'll react to climate change but it is in the realm of possibility that there will be significant losses to crop productivity in places like India.

I take the question as humanity as a whole, not just the existence of humanity. If something is capable of wiping out 50% of humanity, I consider that a threat. I understand what you're saying though.

I know what you mean, I have kids and don't have a lot of time to learn about the things I want to. The thing is, people like that aren't who I'm talking about.

I'm talking about people who will make no effort to learn about a topic, and then feel that their opinion on said topic is of the same weight as everyone else's (including experts). These people will then act/vote based on this opinion and act offended when it's questioned. This mentality is creeping into everything.

I don't want to politicize this but lets use climate change as an example. Forget about whether or not climate change is real or not. Just leave the possibility that it could be, and could be a potential threat to the existence of humanity.

Now, don't get caught up on who is right or wrong, just think about the overall quality of the debate that's currently occurring. It's not climate change that scares me so much as the quality of the debate.

Eventually we will be faced with a very large problem and we don't seem to be in any shape to work together to fix it.

I don't have a problem with this being downvoted, but I'm super curious what someone's reasoning for doing so is?

I'm desperate for someone to convince me this isn't the case.

I guess if I'm being honest I'm kind of a human supremacist. I think most of us are. That's why we eat other animals. I'm not saying I don't feel guilty about it but I also don't feel guilty about swatting mosquitoes.

Also my comment wasn't meant to be serious...

How many people have to die for you to consider it a threat to humanity. Not trying to be dramatic, just understand that small changes in climate and crops have the potential to starve millions if not billions.

What do you mean objectively? I don't see a lot of other species asking and answering these questions...

That being said they're all good points.

I rank this guy as a pretty big threat... This sounds like something a James Bond villain says right before he releases the virus that kills 90% of the human population.

An overwhelmingly large (and growing) population of ignorant people who don't value critical thinking, learning, science, or anything but themselves and their immediate desires.

You're acting as if all of this is deliberate and planned. I'll give you a hint, it isn't. Everything is not going to be ok. The responsibility of these problems is societal ignorance. I'll give you another hint, that isn't going to get any better.

This isn't going to end well...

I think you're underestimating the fact that the boomers will be a bunch of sick old people literally relying on millenials to take care of them in nursing homes.

I don't just mean political power, physical power counts too.

It's cute that they call it a fleecing, as if millenials could really have done anything about this.

Sadly (I guess...) I suspect the generation responsible for all of this is going to end up paying some unexpected prices when the time comes as they age out of power and have to look to millenials for care.

What about the minority of residents that didn't vote for that government. What about the children?

Is there any audio of people speaking with the accent available somewhere?