risky_opinions

What if you're second best? What if you don't know your position?

Game theory.

Not posting this under my main account for reasons, but 4chan harassed me for developing software too. They're a bunch of anonymous assholes that have nothing better to do. Their commentary was degrading and demoralizing.

They thankfully didn't find me in real life, but I pulled down all social media to avoid them.

Edit: I want to say one more thing. Sometimes people defend 4chan and say stuff like "that's just how they are", "they don't really mean it", or "you have to understand their community". But places like 4chan do real, measurable harm to people.

Just recently, Near/Byuu (SNES emulation) took their life after relentless doxxing and harassment. It wasn't 4chan, but these communities all harbor the same type of anonymity-enabled "for the lulz" harassment that brings out the worst in people.

> perhaps it's best to step away and not click "reply" afterall.

This is censorship. It's why I'm posting anonymously for the first time in a long time.

> there has never been a time where you can just blurt out a communication and have it be "accepted" by society

We're in a new era where algorithms amplify rage and "mobs" are a composite of real people, anonymous users, and bots. You can't fight against it, and there's no due process or forgiveness.

I could see companies starting to screen applicants using these lists.

Different companies would choose which list to use according to their own politics and culture.

Totally hypothetical: Coinbase and Google will probably turn rms-open-letter into a denylist. Twitter will do the opposite.

This is all conjecture, but I could see it happening. It's why I feel I shouldn't sign.

I'm creating a throwaway that I hope won't irk dang. If this breaks the rules, I'm sorry and I'll stop.

Richard Stallman single-handedly created the free software movement, and he's the reason we all have jobs. Google and Facebook might not have been possible in a world where you couldn't spin up a server for free and compile code without paying a license.

Richard Stallman has said some sexist and edgy things. He also has Asperger's, which poses challenges many of us do not face. He hasn't, as far as I know, committed any crimes.

Do we destroy the pillar we've built our entire livelihoods upon to satisfy a mob?

Have all of us been truly without blame? Who hasn't said something they shouldn't have? Or done something that marginalized someone at some point in time (even if it wasn't on the basis of sex, gender, race, etc.)?

I don't want to live in a world without American freedom of speech - where we can't be blunt and speak our minds.

I don't want to live in a world where we can't be forgiven.

I was reading comments in another HN thread, and one poster suggested that this might arise from raising kids without bullying. Like the immune system, if we don't develop a central tolerance, perhaps we start attacking everything we find unpleasant? No basis in behavioral science, of course.

And then there's the engagement-driven social media monster. Twitter, in particular. It's destroying careers.

We're badgering the members of the FSF. We're denying Richard Stallman any chances.

This isn't good. It's horrific.

What do we do about this?