Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by thomnottom 3350 days ago
Please do no conflate hate speech and abuse with dissenting opinions. There may, very well, be people who want to hide in an echo chamber. But that is all over twitter and Facebook today. Being able to isolate yourself from abusive speech should not be considered the same thing.
1 comments

Most of the people who complain hate speech and abuse are conflating it with dissenting opinions, sometimes stated aggressively or insultingly and in large numbers.

The first is a consequence of people, the other is a function of Twitter and the fact that you probably read it from a person with lots of followers, who have at least somewhat similar ideas and therefore many are going to disagree with you. Because there are many of them, it can feel overwhelming when they all answer you.

And having not kept my mouth shut during the rocket-guy-shirt fiasco I can tell you that you get the same result when you are on the other side too.

The complaint covers genuine abuse like what happened to Kathy Sierra.

>> Most of the people who complain hate speech and abuse are conflating it with dissenting opinions, sometimes stated aggressively or insultingly and in large numbers.

I can only speak to my own observations, which do not support this assertion.