There have been plenty stories showcasing his racist beliefs of late (I won't link any, just Google it), so it's no unreasonable to read his comments in that light
I'll take your point that such readings exist, but "he's just being racist" isn't a thoughtful expression of one. It's garden-variety internet flamewar, a thing we don't want here—actually we can't have it here if we want the community to survive.
Just to be clear, the issue I'm commenting on is not what deserves the label 'racism'—it's what sort of internet discussion flamebait leads to. The existence of racism, and of differing views about it, is no reason to wreck the community one's participating in. Maybe commenters don't owe John Cleese better, but they owe HN better if they're posting here.
Just to be clear, the issue I'm commenting on is not what deserves the label 'racism'—it's what sort of internet discussion flamebait leads to. The existence of racism, and of differing views about it, is no reason to wreck the community one's participating in. Maybe commenters don't owe John Cleese better, but they owe HN better if they're posting here.
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
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