Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by aaron695 2212 days ago
Top tweet reply Twitter fed me was on point -

Replying to @rustlang

"The world is bigger than just the USA."

There are a lot of problems in the world, Syria pops into mind or a billion people who can't fully feed their kids.

But they are not a viral Twitter sensation. Gotta be 'cool'

5 comments

If you apply this criterion consistently, nobody would be allowed to protest anything
If I may this does not apply here. The tweet was formulated as "Since issue X is more important than our tweets etc." so the criticism of "Also issue Y was more important" is not baseless.

This would not apply if they just supported the cause, or even decided to join the protest. For how international it can be the rust organization is intrinsically based in the US so it is understandable why they might want to make a statement about the current events.

Nevertheless the criticism has a basis in how the tweet was formulated, as the way it was written transforms a perfectly reasonable position of "we cannot and shouldn't fight every battle" into "that other issue was less important".

I would say this was a case where a bad argument was worse than no argument.

Just to repeat myself one more time if the tweet was only "In support of current protests we chose to stop tweeting until further notice" then your comment would be completely right.

I interpreted OP in the following way - US influence on tech shoehorn their politics in every other place. If something happens in Syria or other third world countries, it won't get recognition or will inconvenience people outside of their countries. So I am guessing OP is upset about that. I do think US influence on tech to this degree is bad given the recent years and political environment. Most of the web is controlled by US companies and affects people living in other countries.

I have seen a few mobs attacking people from other countries because they couldn't get the current political environment in US. And why would they? They don't live in the US and thus don't get everything happening in US.

I'm not sure what the problem is. No one can be can make a statement about any bad thing unless they make statements about about all bad things equally?
How about as part of the tech world you are part of the global community.

If you think "taking a stand against X is more important than sharing tech knowledge" then it needs be well thought out before you shut down your global "sharing tech knowledge" over that issue.

Or people like me think you are just part of the vileness the makes Twitter work where everyone is just part of the lynch mob, without thought jumping on, looking for outrage, and a reason to hurt people rather than help people.

Absolutely, and this occurs all the time. Something happens in the US especially, but perhaps also Western Europe and it is spun into a huge issue. Something worse happens somewhere and it is barely reported, if at all.

This is the sad irony of making a huge fuss of "black lives matters" when really they (or non-Armerican/non-Western) don't. What matters is the American village.

This is virtue-signalling and will actually anger, as it always does, many who are not part of the worthy few.

You should try not to be easily swayed by whataboutism.
So, if YOUR family members were being hunted and murdered by a gang of thugs who operate with impunity, you would be wrong to be angry and fed up, as the 10th cousin of yours gets shot by this gang?

Why would this be about "being cool" and not the rage of being constantly targeted and NO systemic change since the Jim Crow law era?

It's been the same since Emmett Till, and frankly, your reaction is a bit hard to believe. Can a human truly be ignorant of the facts on the ground in the USA of being black or white and the differing treatment you get?

I'll wager that you don't watch CNN, as you smell a little Foxy, but they had 2 reporter crews on the ground 1 block apart in Minneapolis, and the black anchor and his crew got arrested ON-AIR, and the white guys crew got politely asked to move after their credentials were checked.