Comment by bilbo0s
2 hours ago
I have a black friend who I once referred to an HN post for more information on a topic we were discussing. Hs informed me that he doesn't go to HN, "That place is a Klan rally", were his words IIRC. At any rate, I said that a lot of it is 4chan, but there's some quality there, afterall, I use HN.
He looked at me and smiled. Went back to his coding.
I just want to put it out there that just because you happen to be in a place with a lot of unsavory people doesn't mean you, yourself are unsavory. We shouldn't paint everyone with so Catholic a brush. You have to go to the grocery store, but so do pedophiles, drug lords, and wife abusers. That's kind of how I see HN.
Yes. It's a crap hole.
But some neighborhoods just have crap hole grocery stores. Tech is kind of one of those "neighborhoods", and HN is a grocery store. You don't have to socialize with the other customers, and you can restrict yourself to only buying the decent foods on offer.
I think the desire to keep this place so pleasant and not moderate dressed-up views rooted in racism / hate ("we're not political" being a political stance, more or less) lets some really reprehensible threads live / get defended.
To the point someone brought up elsewhere, you can't really 'fight' back either. Everything remains 'polite' despite viewing you as less of a human being for being a person of color, poor, etc.