Show HN: I ran sentiment analysis on Show HN comments and got the meanest ones

Re:Show HN: I ran sentiment analysis on Show HN comments and... by repolfx on Tuesday July 17, 2018 @04:18AM (#17548149)

You got it: that's exactly correct. Implying someone is racist when they've not said anything racist is unacceptable ad-hominem. I think any civilised person can agree on that.

And the second part is also correct. You can't stop people holding "racist ideologies" without censoring free thought, which short of Black Mirror style sci-fi machines is impossible. But even if such technology did exist you can't even define what "racist ideology" actually means with any level of consensus of precision. You're so far from even being able to think about doing anything here, that even attempting is worthless and will cause vast collateral damage. Therefore the correct solution is to do nothing.

[ Parent | on HN ]

Re:Show HN: I ran sentiment analysis on Show HN comments and... by lukev on Tuesday July 17, 2018 @09:51AM (#17549708)

This is fascinating. What other things fall into this intriguing category, where doing a Very Bad Thing is ok, but observing that someone seems to be in favor of a Very Bad Thing is downright terrible?

And how is a society to defend itself against Very Bad Things, when it's worse to talk about than to actually do?

The only reason I can think of why someone might hold such a logically contorted position, actually, is if they actually think Very Bad Thing isn't that bad a thing at all, but won't come right out and say so.

[ Parent | on HN ]