The idea here is: if you have a substantive point to make, make it thoughtfully; if you don't, please don't comment until you do.
> This is what a functioning criminal justice system looks like. Meanwhile the co-founders of the opioid epidemic, which has killed at least 150,000 people, paid a few million dollars in fines. [0]
It's really inconceivable that an outcome like this Korean judgement would ever be reached in the US. 18 months of prison time for union busting? Meanwhile, the ACLU reports that Americans are being jailed to collect on medical debts [1].
Indignation isn't shallow or boring, it's the driving force behind social progress. Indeed, lack of indignation indicates either the inability to imagine a better world or perhaps the natural satisfaction with the status quo of someone who finds themself sitting on the upper rungs of society as currently structured. The latter no doubt describes many of us here.
We could have a nuanced conversation on the comparative virtues and shortcomings of the US and Korean justice systems, or we could downvote anyone who states the obvious into grey text oblivion and poo-poo them for their "shallow" indignation.
It's not intellectual sophistication to avoid mentioning pachyderms when conversing in the company of an elephant; rather, it's obtuse.
0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21829200
1. https://www.aclu.org/report/pound-flesh-criminalization-priv...
Indignation is a driving force in social progress. But it's the arch-enemy of intellectual curiosity. The longer I do this job, the clearer it becomes that HN is in a Manichean universe. You can have intellectual curiosity or indignation. You cannot have both at the same time. That's basically it.
If I take my moderator hemlet off, do I feel the same indignation you feel? You bet I do. But the job is not to moderate HN that way. The job is to preserve it for intellectual curiosity. That's a clear distinction. You'd be surprised how clear it is, if you spent your days looking at it from every conceivable angle.
One thing I wonder sometimes why nobody asks me, so I'll ask it here: why is this ok? Aren't the union busting, medical debt, and opioid epidemic issues—and so many more, climate change, income inequality—utterly more important than the triviality of the rest of HN? Maze-building algorithms, 1983 keyboard vs. mouse tests, and the joy of Cliff Stoll—to mention things that have gotten attention here in the last day?
The answer is yes, they are utterly more important. But would the world be better if those waves swept HN away? I don't think so. I think the world, or at least the internet, is better off with at least one forum that's focused on intellectual curiosity. And if we're going to focus on it, we'd better focus on it deliberately, because otherwise those stronger forces will sweep HN away.