[GhotiFish]

?

   I know you've had criticism for being young. I won't go 
   there other than to say that there are a lot of 
   indoctrinated young idealists in the HN audience. In 
   some cultures they come out of school indoctrinated and 
   fail to understand the world and their environment until 
   perhaps decades later.

So this is not calling him indoctrinated?

I suppose it technically isn't, actually. I find that position pedantic though.

When you see a headline titled "Is Obama trying to destroy America?" you know exactly what their position is. They just can't swap the "Is" and "Obama" words, because it's slander at that point.

None of this is to be commended.

[robomartin]

> So this is not calling him indoctrinated?

Yup. You got it!

What I am saying is factually correct. There are a lot of young brain-washed (indoctrinated) folks who post on HN. How can one tell? Experience. When you read some posts from the perspective of having lived a life outside of academic and religious indoctrination long enough you detect sometimes subtle cues that reveal it. These posts are always detectably different from those of someone with what I might call "independent" life experience.

One of my favorite examples of this is the "blame the rich" meme. It's a very popular meme. Rich businessmen (never women, BTW) are greedy, get paid too much and oppress the little guys. Such statements can only come from a position of indoctrinated ignorance. You can derail such ideas with a few well-crafted questions that quickly point out just how ridiculous a concept it is.

Indoctrination is a powerful force. People will blow themselves up and kill others because they've been brainwashed into a belief system that makes zero sense to someone watching from the outside. What most don't want to accept is that indoctrination isn't limited to extreme quasi-religious ideologies.

[GhotiFish]

Ah I see, so then there was no point in mentioning it right?

Since rikacomet is not indoctrinated, the suggestion to read the works of Greek philosophers was also not a suggestion to correct that line of thinking, and I doubt you were referring to the people responding to him. So it must just be an off the cuff remark. I like carrots. Carrots earned their reputation for improving eyesight in world war two, when the allies spread the rumor that they were giving their pilots a high dose carrot diet to improve their eyesight, as a cover for their shinny new radar system. After all, given the fact that they arn't related, it doesn't seem to apply to anyone really in this discussion.

Or maybe I'm wrong? Did your comment about indoctrination relate, in some way, to something? I think I'm missing it's purpose.