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by welanes 3562 days ago
> Luckey has “liked” many alt-right memes

Thought crimes will not be tolerated. Extrapolating 'likes' to mean sympathy with racists (which is what Motherboard's article infers) is disgusting, surely.

This culture of witch-hunting people for what they liked on Twitter (which could mean anything from 'I like this' to 'interesting insight' - not that it matters) or who they choose to support is shameful.

Believe it or not, people are allowed to have views that differ from your own.

3 comments

Luckey can express/support anything he desires and that's fine for him -- however ignorant his views are. But it's another thing to say we shouldn't call him out on it.
Of course. But call him out for what exactly? That he liked a Tweet? That he supports Trump?

And by calling out, you mean public shaming him for his beliefs. I see it on my FB feed everyday - "look at this idiot Trump supporter". Or from the other side - "these libt_rds actually believe this stuff".

Remember when Viralnova made big bucks making cute cat pics go viral? We don't see them anymore because media outlets have figured that outrage gets more clicks, and the results are so unhealthy for our discourse.

On Twitter right now, a million person witch-hunt is in full swing, calling for the virtual expulsion of a person for beliefs it has been inferred he holds.

No point in letting Luckey explain himself, of course. That would take too long and we're outraged now!

It's not just his tweets, likes, or his support of Trump. It's proven in detail now that he is actively funding a fringe alt-right group that peddles bigoted/racist/xenophobic crap.

Most of us want to live in a world that says this is not ok.

As do I. I wish that world didn't use struggle sessions and collective guilt (his girlfriend has been driven off social media) in the process.
A few days ago somebody from Vice and/or BoingBoing was trying to put a bounty on Peter Thiel.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=12517343

Given his association with this Trump group, I think his Twitter likes on alt-right memes are absolutely relevant to the story. You may have a point about witch hunt culture but I do not believe this is the best example. If a news outlet was trying to make a story from his likes alone, then okay, I'd agree.
His Twitter likes on alt-right memes are the story.