Re:Richard “Lowtax” Kyanka, creator of Somethingawful, has died
by smt88 on Thursday November 11, 2021 @08:28AM
(#29187610)
> A person need not be wholesome or kind to warrant mourning their death.
I didn't know the guy. He hadn't done anything that I would miss in a long time. I have no reason or obligation to mourn him.
> fwiw I think it's incredibly tacky to go into a what is in essence a memorial thread to post a list of grievances against a dead person that has no means of explanation or defense
I didn't list grievances. I was pushing back on the idea that HN should have a black bar to honor him. He wasn't honorable and doesn't deserve our posthumous reverence. If a thread had been started about him a week ago, almost no one would have anything nice to say.
Also the truly, hilariously ironic thing about writing "tacky" comments about people who can't defend themselves... this is exactly what Kyanka and his site were about. They had absolutely no respect for what other people considered tacky. If it was genuinely funny, it was OK to post it.
> that way we at least stand the chance of sparing the bereaved
What bereaved person is going to read this? He left behind wives and girlfriends who will likely be happy he's gone. They'll certainly be in a lot less danger.
So maybe he has children who would be sad, but even that isn't a guarantee.
Regardless, I don't care if I offend these incredibly small number of bereaved people who have a near-zero chance of reading this. Kyanka lived a life that didn't earn him glowing reviews. Would we be having this conversation if OJ Simpson died, someone proposed honoring him, and I pushed back on it?
If Kyanka wanted people to say nice things about him after he died, he should have said more nice things on the internet while he was alive, and he should have terrorized fewer vulnerable loved ones.
I didn't know the guy. He hadn't done anything that I would miss in a long time. I have no reason or obligation to mourn him.
> fwiw I think it's incredibly tacky to go into a what is in essence a memorial thread to post a list of grievances against a dead person that has no means of explanation or defense
I didn't list grievances. I was pushing back on the idea that HN should have a black bar to honor him. He wasn't honorable and doesn't deserve our posthumous reverence. If a thread had been started about him a week ago, almost no one would have anything nice to say.
Also the truly, hilariously ironic thing about writing "tacky" comments about people who can't defend themselves... this is exactly what Kyanka and his site were about. They had absolutely no respect for what other people considered tacky. If it was genuinely funny, it was OK to post it.
> that way we at least stand the chance of sparing the bereaved
What bereaved person is going to read this? He left behind wives and girlfriends who will likely be happy he's gone. They'll certainly be in a lot less danger.
So maybe he has children who would be sad, but even that isn't a guarantee.
Regardless, I don't care if I offend these incredibly small number of bereaved people who have a near-zero chance of reading this. Kyanka lived a life that didn't earn him glowing reviews. Would we be having this conversation if OJ Simpson died, someone proposed honoring him, and I pushed back on it?
If Kyanka wanted people to say nice things about him after he died, he should have said more nice things on the internet while he was alive, and he should have terrorized fewer vulnerable loved ones.