I love how HN continues to prove to be a place where only cargo cult mentality is rewarded. Anything outside of that is mercilessly down-voted by the 22 year olds that permeate this mono-cultural society.
It's OK, it's just funny. You still have a few years of reality before you actually get out of the cave and stop seeing the world through shadows on the walls, some of which were painted by your professors in college.
Tolerance is something most people love to talk about just to sound "right" and fit in. In practice intolerance and prejudice are far more common with people who preach it --and behave otherwise-- than in those who do not but rather choose to simply practice it.
Just the way it is.
On HN you can't have a viewpoint significantly opposite that of the underlying HN culture. You just can't.
HN is generally more pro automobile so your stance is not "controversial" by the ethos here. I believe posts are getting downvoted because they are needlessly attacking. Your logical flaws don't help either.
Well, let's just say I disagree with you. There are no logical issues with my original comment about how a lot of these "the sky is falling" articles are nonsense supported nonsense often in support of underlying political motives. Can't say that's never happened before.
On the attack aspect. Look, HN is characterized by some really dumb back and forth discussions full of senseless nit-picking. I call these "programmer arguments" because it is often impossible to argue with some programmers because they are really good about arguing endlessly about utterly irrelevant minutiae. Like the comments in this thread that got into the idea that there's an argument to be made about drivers being more careful when they see bikers not wearing helmets. And the nonsense back and forth continues.
So yeah, I have grown quite intolerant to nonsense over the last five years or so. I've been really busy and have not read HN in a while. I just came back and see a bunch of the same thing and this intolerant cargo cult.
HN is at it's best when the discussions are contained to technology, startups, software or hardware development and related topics. There's a lot of expertise and value here when it comes to these topics.
The minute HN discussions deviate from that world it all derails. I have this vision -right or wrong- of a bunch of real-life ignorant 22 year olds brainwashed by their college professors desperately trying to play adult with their comments here. I'd be funny if it wasn't so stupid. They have little life experience yet have categorical opinions about everything and are incredibly intolerant of anything outside this cargo cult mentality.
Progress isn't made by those who swim with the current. You have to be willing to swim hard against it if you want to change the world, or at least your little corner of it. Going against the flow is not easy, as evidenced here. It would be called bullying in the real world. Or at least bigoted intolerant behavior.
Here's the good part: Despite what is said or done here, reality is as it is. And this they will eventually learn the hard way on the street, not here. I remember having a conversation about taxation with a 22 year old engineer who worked for me at one of my companies 15 years ago. He had swallowed-up the liberal coolaid whole. Nothing I could say could convince him he was wrong. Ten years later he called me up one day to thank me for what he learned from me (mostly in terms of engineering). He also mentioned he now understood the issues I used to point out regarding taxation. Why? Because he launched his own business and got the experience of now having to hold that cat by the tail.
HN is broken. Keep it to science, tech and startups and all is well. Everything else derails into nonsense kiddie bickering almost instantly.
I am not refusing to post anything. I plant a seed. I know the answer. Anyone can google it just as well as I might be able to. Why does everything have to be spoon fed?
So someone finally was interested enough to research my claims and post a link. Here it is:
"In 1995 the Republican Congress repealed the 55-mile-per-hour federal speed limit law. At the time, the highway safety lobby and consumer advocacy groups made apocalyptic pre- dictions about 6,400 increased deaths and a million additional injuries if posted speed limits were raised. Ralph Nader even said that “history will never forgive Congress for this assault on the sanctity of human life.”
"...a million additional injuries..."
All bullshit as 20 years of history has proven.
So why the tone? Because this HN trait infuriates me.
Someone posts a factually accurate viewpoint that goes against the "HN culture" and they are mercilessly attacked here. It's bullying at it's best. The difference is that while most people just crumble and leave, I don't. And I am not shy about calling bullshit when I see it.
As to my choice to be short and to the point and even use colorful language. Well, I'd much rather listen to a man who presents facts with straight, even sometimes abrasive, speech out of the need to make an impression than waste any time listening to well-crafted, intellectually brilliant sounding, well articulated, refined, non-colorful, non-offensive language that is full of lies and manipulations...you know, like politicians or those on HN who take the time to write great sounding posts with lot's of links and research that, when you get right down to it, are hardly worth a handful of manure.
So there, someone, not me, was smart and inquisitive enough to ask: I wonder if this guy might have a point? And he or she posted a link to a pretty good PDF.
It echos exactly what I said: politicians, misinformed activists and even government agencies painted apocalyptic i ages of what would happen if the speed limit was raised. It was all nonsense. The exact opposite happened. And that is likely the case with this dumb 12 foot vs. 10 foot lane issue.
Of course, none of the HN down-vote kiddies are going to read this and say "Wow, this guy was right!", apologize and learn something.
No, instead they'll find some other justification for their hatred-driven down vote assault and move on to he next guy who dares to stand up for a truth that happens to go counter tho what makes HN kiddies feel good about themselves.
It's OK, it's just funny. You still have a few years of reality before you actually get out of the cave and stop seeing the world through shadows on the walls, some of which were painted by your professors in college.
Tolerance is something most people love to talk about just to sound "right" and fit in. In practice intolerance and prejudice are far more common with people who preach it --and behave otherwise-- than in those who do not but rather choose to simply practice it.
Just the way it is.
On HN you can't have a viewpoint significantly opposite that of the underlying HN culture. You just can't.