phiofx
A casual scan of #hackernews commentaries (on any topic that touches broader questions and tests our moral attitudes) reveals that the majority of techies (strictly speaking those who comment there, but it should be reasonably representative) is completely money-driven and does not have any sense that they bear responsibility for the impact of the digital society they help create.
"Creating value" ("making it") in a rigged financial game of greater fools) easily dispells any dark thoughts.
Dr James Ravenscroft
@datarama @phiofx that's the thing I guess, it's really hard to know what is representative these days because each site is it's own silo with it's own norms and overton window. Certainly HN is a pretty libertarian bubble. With the death of twitter etc I don't think there is a social network that is big enough to give a good cross-sectional sample any more, just lots of little bubbles!
phiofx
@jamesravey @datarama there is definitely a selection bias (the site was created to support the VC agenda after all) but frequently the worldviews on display are so deeply chilling they seem disconnected with what one might term mainstream corporate workforces. I wouldn't discount that there is certain amount of sick role playing given the habitual throwaway accounts but maybe its just wishful thinking.
datarama
@jamesravey @phiofx With fedi, that is of course because I live in a self-selected information bubble, as do we all.
...but the thing is, HN is a self-selected information bubble too. It's just one with more clout.
datarama
@jamesravey @phiofx ...and yet, I don't ever meet any of them in real life. I'm a developer, and I spend a lot of time hanging out at the local hackerspace. Aside from "cool gadget", we often talk about the implications of tech on human rights, the climate crisis, the encroaching surveillance society, etc. Nearly everybody - even those on the political right - strongly dislikes Big Tech.
...and here on the internet, I don't see that many tech bros on fedi or eg. lobste.rs.
datarama
@jamesravey @phiofx I honestly have no idea how representative they are. On the internet, it feels like HN-style tech bros are *everywhere*: Aside from HN itself, the commentariat at some of the older tech communities is also full of them (finding out that Slashdot still existed turned out to be more depressing than I had anticipated - and reading any Ars Technica thread about anything even peripherally related to humans and society is reliably infuriating).
Dr James Ravenscroft
@phiofx not sure I'd agree that the unbearable tech bros that comment on the orange site are broadly representative of techies in general. I'd suggest that they are the vocal minority. HN is wretched hive of scum and villainy. I'd identify as a "techie" but I also get angry as hell whenever I browse HN threads that go any deeper than "cool website bro" for all the reasons you outlined.
datarama
@phiofx @jamesravey ...and yet, even *they* thought Andreessen's weird manifesto was a bit much.
As I said, I don't know. Almost every tech worker I know in real life who reads the orange site thinks it is a fucked-up echo chamber for sociopaths.
datarama
@phiofx @jamesravey Footnote: HN has gotten worse, though. The bias has always been there, but it's changed quite a lot since back when Paul Graham would regularly come in and tell people about the value of philosophy and fine art, and a lot of the discussions were just people showing off the neat Lisp interpreter they'd built. Now it's all about extraction and disruption.
It's been especially awful recently, after the "robot cultist" segment of the userbase really got wind in the sails.
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