otde (u/otde) - Readit News

otde commented on ICE Deports 3 U.S. Citizen Children Held Incommunicado Prior to the Deportation aclu.org/press-releases/i... · Posted by u/mandmandam

samlinnfer · 8 months ago

Instead of processing immigration applications fairly for everyone, we just should let people who break the rules get away with it?

Having deportation as an actual threat, reduces the amount of people who attempt to break the rules since they know there are consequences.

otde · 8 months ago

Why does the consequence have to be deportation? Can we imagine a form of deterrence that doesn’t necessitate the cruelty of familial separation? Do we at least agree that what is happening right now, to this family and to others, is deeply unjust?

otde commented on ICE Deports 3 U.S. Citizen Children Held Incommunicado Prior to the Deportation aclu.org/press-releases/i... · Posted by u/mandmandam

andsoitis · 8 months ago

While the 3 minors are US citizens, their parents are not and the parents can be deported because they are in the country illegally.

That means you have the following options:

a) deport nobody, i.e. you don't apply the law

b) deport just the parents. What do you do with the minor children? Separating them from their parents (different countries) would be cruel.

c) deport the entire family, including the US minors. Since they have US citizenship, they can always return to the US.

otde · 8 months ago

Why is a) bad? Have you considered d) pass a different law? Why are you pretending the law is some immutable thing that we always need to follow, regardless of the situations an unjust law might place someone in if followed?

otde commented on I Met Paul Graham Once okayfail.com/2025/i-met-p... · Posted by u/DamonHD

marcusverus · a year ago

It might be reasonable to disregard Mr. Graham if he were somehow abusing the term "woke", but it seems wrongheaded to disregard him due to "the mere fact that [he] takes the word "woke" seriously".

otde · a year ago

The point OP is making (and it ‘s one that I agree with) is that Graham’s particular usage of the word “woke” as written in his essay functions as a shibboleth for a collection of reactionary beliefs and impulses — not merely that he uses the word, but that he does so in a poorly-defined and pejorative way that is characteristic of the word’s usage in various right-leaning circles.

otde commented on I Met Paul Graham Once okayfail.com/2025/i-met-p... · Posted by u/DamonHD

slibhb · a year ago

I thought this was better than most essays in this vein.

I do fundamentally disagree with the author. People can think poorly of you for whatever reason they want. If someone hates trans people, they can, and you can't stop them. The whole "war on hate" thing was a bad idea; you can't forbid hatred. It predictably didn't work, and it's good that we're turning away from it.

Adding on, the trans issue isn't simple. There are real questions about bathrooms, women's sports, and when medical interventions are called for. Of course, there are also just bigots. The proper response to bigots is not to banish them, ban them, shadowban them, etc. That didn't work. The proper response is -- in the spirit of the new era of free speech -- to firmly state your opposition to their beliefs.

otde · a year ago

> If someone hates trans people, they can, and you can't stop them. The whole "war on hate" thing was a bad idea; you can't forbid hatred. It predictably didn't work, and it's good that we're turning away from it.

It is disingenuous to suggest that anti-discrimination laws for trans people are attempting to legislate away the hatred held in people’s hearts, instead of access to healthcare, public facilities, protections against workplace discrimination — things you describe as having “real questions,” but which are, in fact, the parts of a full and dignified life that bigots would deny to trans people in particular. If you pretend like it’s trying to legislate “thoughtcrime,” it’s much easier to distinguish anti-discrimination laws for trans people from rulings like Obergefell or Brown v. Board — far easier to say “look, those were good, but this particular civil rights legislation is simply unreasonable.”

To platform these beliefs is to afford them a legitimacy they do not deserve. To suggest that bigotry, when amplified, will be in some way countered or reduced is naïve beyond belief. Instead, it becomes easier for bigotry to find an audience of receptive listeners and willing conduits for further transmission.

otde commented on Rust: Tools (early access edition) bitfieldconsulting.com/bo... · Posted by u/gus_leonel

_mlbt · a year ago

As an independent developer or author, every bit of time or money put into superficial things like a book cover is time or money that isn’t used for the content itself.

otde · a year ago

which begs the question: why spend any time at all including an ai image as part of the cover if it’s a negative signal for some people?

otde commented on A third of North America’s birds have vanished nautil.us/a-third-of-nort... · Posted by u/geox

mcsniff · 2 years ago

> How can this compete with the dozens of neighbors in a half-mile radius that have removed in excess of hundreds of trees, big ones like oak, pine, maple, hickory and up to five feet in diameter, and turn their yards into grass wastelands? I never even see my neighbors use most of their yards. How do you compete against that level of narcissisim and lack of empathy?

Moving might be an option. There are places where this doesn't happen and while you might have other problems, you probably won't have those problems.

otde · 2 years ago

I don't think the issue is whether GP lives next to neighbors with these kind of lawns, but more that the relative proportion of bird-hostile yards is outpacing any individual attempt to counterbalance. Moving only solves the problem if the only thing you care about is the extent to which you, personally, are forced to see one of the causes of this population drop in your daily life. It doesn't address the problem itself, which is kind of also GP's point.

otde commented on Vitalik Buterin’s philosophical essays: they’re not good davidgerard.co.uk/blockch... · Posted by u/davidgerard

PretzelPirate · 3 years ago

> Seems less like "Buterin is a fool for not Being An Academic" and more like "Buterin is arrogant enough to assume he can solve a really difficult problem without understanding why nobody's solved it yet."

Whether or not Buterin knew that the problem was unsolved shouldn't influence his decision to attempt to solve it within the constraints of his research area. Vitalik is very smart and works for a research foundation who spends time on complex things that might pan out if they work on them.

otde · 3 years ago

Very smart people usually take the time to understand the historical context behind the problems they're attempting to solve, IMO. (Especially if solving that problem requires proof that P=NP.) ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

otde commented on Vitalik Buterin’s philosophical essays: they’re not good davidgerard.co.uk/blockch... · Posted by u/davidgerard

chrisbigelow · 3 years ago

> Buterin comes from a long tradition of Silicon Valley special smart boys, who have had it hammered into them that domain expertise — i.e., actually knowing stuff — pales into insignificance compared to pulling ideas out of your backside by virtue of your superior intelligence and upbringing and social position.

I detest this worldview. New knowledge is formed through creative conjecture and criticism. The creation of new ideas being restricted to only experts, those who "actually know stuff" shrinks the pool of creators of new knowledge. What we should strive for is better explanations of reality, not a restriction on who can make those explanations.

otde · 3 years ago

> The creation of new ideas being restricted to only experts, those who "actually know stuff" shrinks the pool of creators of new knowledge.

Abstractly, I agree with what you've said here, but I don't think the part of Gerard's post that you quoted is making the point that you're countering.

Broadly speaking, a lot of discovery work comes from domain experts precisely because of the work it takes to become such an expert. My read on the phrase "actually knowing stuff" is that it refers not just to a solid understanding of the nuts-and-bolts of your field, but also a more general grasp of the field's history. This kind of contextual knowledge is extremely helpful when attempting new or experimental research because it gives you an idea of which areas of knowledge might contain some novel insight while also cluing you in to which approaches might help you arrive at that insight. I interpreted Gerard's critique of Buterin here not as one of insufficient academic clout, but of arrogance, a reification of great man theory [1] through a techno-libertarian lens that positions himself among a host of other so-called "great men" and frames every societal problem as solvable through whatever lens the Great Man might think is particularly interesting.

Gerard's critique of Buterin's approach to sharding (which goes into further detail here [2]) seems to back this interpretation up:

> Buterin blogs extensive essays full of great thoughts on how to reorganise the world, and how Ethereum will be the basis for this once they add amazing new functionalities that will only require solving P=NP.

> Remember that Buterin spent years working on a sharding plan for Ethereum that, had he done Intro to Theory of Computation, he might have realised was probably impossible.

Seems less like "Buterin is a fool for not Being An Academic" and more like "Buterin is arrogant enough to assume he can solve a really difficult problem without understanding why nobody's solved it yet."

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_man_theory [2] https://davidgerard.co.uk/blockchain/2022/04/04/if-you-want-...

otde commented on Netflix to Employees: If you don't like our content, you can quit wsj.com/articles/netflix-... · Posted by u/goplayoutside

jrs235 · 4 years ago

Is it rooted in hatred or fear?

otde · 4 years ago

It's pretty complicated! I'd say it's a little bit of a lot of things, and the amounts of those things depends on the person. There's some people who feel like they wish they could have transitioned but didn't, and direct a pretty intense resentment towards people they see as having undeserved happiness (the "rotten egg" theory). Some people believe in a strict natural "order" in the world that they see trans people as subverting in ways they see as disgusting. Some people are scared parents who believe trans people will indoctrinate their children and turn them into unrecognizable, traumatized, uncontrollable shells of their former selves through surgeries and hormone treatments.

Shared amongst all these lines of thinking is an intense belief that the world would be a better place if the idea of being trans (and trans people in general) simply didn't exist, and that to move to that world, we should be detransitioned first, invisible second, and dead otherwise.

otde commented on Netflix to Employees: If you don't like our content, you can quit wsj.com/articles/netflix-... · Posted by u/goplayoutside

pdimitar · 4 years ago

> We challenge their expectations by asking to be addressed in a way that goes against their ideas of what gender, at its core, means to them.

Nope, you're asking for a special treatment in an environment where 99.9% of people don't care how you want to be called. Not because they hate you -- it's because they're not there to fight for your rights.

My name has at least 12 different ways to be pronounced in my country -- most of them in a semi-mocking manner, too -- and at one point I simply stopped caring even if I didn't like being called as some people do. Felt like pissing against the wind and I figured I'm not going to waste my time arguing with people whose only goal is to tease. They give up literally seconds later when ignored.

I feel that some trans people are just barking up the wrong tree at the wrong time. in a normal social setting -- say, in a restaurant, or a cafe in the park -- people are there to socialize or network. Not to fight the good fight against trans people being harmed.

Of course I'm not even touching on the psychopaths who would pursue and physically harm you. I'm addressing the problem of people bringing the issues that are close to their hearts in a social setting where people don't care and are looking negatively at the idea of forcing that discussion right there and then.

And I feel that point of view is very often missed by people who feel they have to fight for various social justice causes.

otde · 4 years ago

> Nope, you're asking for a special treatment in an environment where 99.9% of people don't care how you want to be called. Not because they hate you -- it's because they're not there to fight for your rights.

You are framing this as "special treatment" precisely because of your ideas of what gender means to you. Honestly, I empathize hard with what you describe as "pissing into the wind." I'm misgendered on a daily basis -- if I spent every ounce of energy I had correcting people, I'd end each day exhausted. More often than not, I don't push back, usually because it's a service worker who's forced to be deferential as part of their job ("sir"/"ma'am"/etc). I don't begrudge that kind of attempt at politeness. Even outside that, it's never a huge deal in isolation, but it adds up, because I have to do a little bit of mental calculus each time: is this person going to make a whole thing about it or go "my bad" and move on? do I have the energy to bring it up? are they trying to be rude or is it an honest mistake? etc. In professional and personal circles, I'm generally more likely to correct people, because I'm signalling a way to be polite to me, and I've been polite to them, and it's how we establish mutual respect, not "special treatment."

Usually, when people get frustrated at misgendering, it's because a person is ignoring really obvious tells about how a person wants to be addressed (clothing, etc.) in favor of their own personal philosophy about what being "right" means. In the exact same way, for example, you might feel frustrated if someone intentionally decided to use a semi-mocking pronunciation of your name. In both cases, it signals that a person has decided to be cruel to you for petty and unknowable reasons.

I guess my big takeaway is that you deserve as much dignity and respect in the way people pronounce your name as I do for my pronouns, and I hope you can find some understanding/empathy in the parallels between our experiences.