Am I obligated to disclose that I held a particular job years ago? I didn't know that was a requirement on HN. I see that you also haven't disclosed your resume and that your profile is blank. Is there a reason for that? Maybe you have a false conscience and knew it would immediately discredit you?
So far, all you've contributed to the discussion is hyperbole and name calling:
"Touchy... silly... general ignorance... boneheaded... ignorant... discourse police... propagandists... some of the lowest forms of human life... the only reasonable feelings are contempt and pity"
How is anyone supposed to take you seriously when you present no facts, no cogent argument, just attacks and vitriol?
I don't think there's any point in continuing this conversation any further. You are convinced of your position beyond the ability to reason and listen. I hope that some day you find peace within yourself and the ability to imagine that other human beings are not your enemy.
You should probably also switch to decaf.
Anyway, if something you did for 20 years was years ago, then you're not the target audience of my comment. I don't want to disturb your retirement. I also admit that journalism way back in the day when you practiced it had a certain editorial sobriety that masked much of the ideological bias. Some of that is a function of the post-WWII consensus being effectively dead now. That wasn't the case back when you trod the boards. It was also much more common then for newsrooms to include working class voices. There were also many more news organizations back then, before consolidation. Those days are gone. The mask is off. People see it.
You may not like my tone, but people waste a lot of time arguing over stuff that really doesn't make a bit of difference. Sometimes ridicule, satire, and sarcasm are more effective tools of conversion than more of the same tired whinging about well-meaning people. I don't think ALL "human beings" are my enemy, just some. Do you have no enemies? I doubt that very much.
It used to be just whackjobs with tinfoil hats on ham radio in the desert.
Then it became a meme. But it was still a joke.
In the last few years it seems to have been weaponized, and there are now dozens, if not hundreds, of people on HN who actually believe this; if for no other reason than they've seen it written on the internet so many times. Often, like the person above, the idea is spouted with irrationally hyperbolic levels of venom and hatred.
It feels like yet another coordinated attack on the fundamentals of Western society, just like the "all elections are rigged!" crowd that, at its root turns out to be funded by governments and organizations that profit from chaos, and hope to benefit from the elimination of democracy.
The continuing attacks on journalism and journalists erode our society. If you don't understand that, then you must have slept through your civics classes.
Anyone who thinks that journalists are "some of the lowest forms of human life" just sounds unhinged, and unable to think or understand how the world works. The real world, not the imaginary dystopia of the people on the internet barking at one another.
I can't help but think that this person works on behalf of one of those groups that is trying to destroy democracy. Whether they know it, or not.