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by smokeyj 3357 days ago
> I'M NOT COMPARING FILESHARING TO SLAVERY. I'm just saying that in both cases

Yeah okay.

Reminds me of a line from Silicon Valley.

"Did you just compare the treatment of billionaires in America today to the plight of the Jews in Nazi Germany?"

"Absolutely. One could argue that billionaires are actually treated worse. And we didn't even do anything wrong!"
1 comments
johnfn 3357 days ago
Somehow I knew that even if I put in a line in all caps, someone would still think I was comparing filesharing to slavery. :P
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dang 3357 days ago
Please don't put lines in all caps: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.
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johnfn 3357 days ago
Alright, but don't you understand what's going on here? If I don't emphasize that line, I'm going to inevitably get comments like "you're comparing filesharing to slavery which illegitimizes your entire argument." In the exact same way that GP did anyways, and in the same way that when I later said that saying that industries were dying illegitimized my argument because I didn't make it clear enough which industries those were.

When people jump to using all caps, it's not because they love all caps. It's because the formatting provided to them by the platform isn't good enough to articulate their ideas clearly.

I need more formatting options!

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dang 3357 days ago
The guidelines helpfully suggest which formatting option to use instead. Really though, if you have this conundrum, it's probably time to reconsider your slavery comparison.
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johnfn 3357 days ago
But I'm not comparing filesharing to slavery.

You see? Even you missed that point. And it was in all caps. You think that italics would have helped? :P

Maybe I just shouldn't even make reference to slavery at all. No matter how tangentially related the reference is. It's like an inverse Godwin's law where you try to say something like "this one guy, who was incidentally Hitler's friend, said something that refutes your point..." and your interlocutor automatically claims Godwin's law.

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dang 3356 days ago
Right. If you fly close to a black hole there's no point complaining about getting sucked in.
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