
Ask HN: Why so much negativity? - marklubi
I joined this community almost 10 years ago, and it has been amazing for the better part of those years.<p>It started as a place with so much optimism and sharing of ideas and concepts, and a place that relished in and congratulated others for their individual success (e.g., patio11).<p>While there&#x27;s still some of it that still occurs, much of it lately is being overrun by hatred and disdain for others (Melissa Mayer&#x2F;Yahoo&#x2F;Verizon, Juicero, Uber, Microsoft, Trump, wealthy people, etc.).<p>How do we correct this? Can we even have a constructive conversation about it?
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snowpanda
One thing I've noticed is people are very quick to downvote different
opinions.

I've gotten into the habit of upvoting comments that have been downvoted
(given that they are somewhat constructive). Even if I strongly disagree with
them.

It's something we could all do in my opinion. Just my 2 cents.

I think we live in a time where disagreements or different opinions are
quickly seen as offensive and "wrong".

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toexitthedonut
An interesting phenomena I heard is Cunningham's law. It states, "the best way
to get the right answer on the internet is not to ask a question, it's to post
the wrong answer."

It probably is stated because people are very quick to correct other people
when they are wrong, I guess.

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dvdhnt
Honestly, it may be that the status quo of modern times is finally bleeding
into HN. People generally can't sustain high levels of optimism or positivity
in the midst of a primarily negative and cynical environment. I saw it in the
military; new recruits came in bright eyed and bushy tailed only to have their
optimism stunted by the existing military culture. Of course, that's only a
hypothesis and I may be barking up the wrong tree.

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psyc
I was also here 8 years ago, under my real name. In those days, HN was a
literal community of smart entrepreneurs (as opposed to a figurative internet
"community"). I'm afraid that ship has long since sailed, more than 5 years
ago.

These days, Luddite News is little more than a chat bot that spams you with
disingenuous requests for citations, points out that your anecdote isn't data,
and asserts that everything is explained by some combination of the placebo
effect and confirmation bias.

~~~
meric
And tells you they've stopped reading.

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iLemming2
In general there's a hatred or disdain for anyone that does not belong in the
majority of a group. Over the last centuries, the majority has always tried to
destroy anyone that's different. This century is no different than the last
four in that regard.

In psychology we call these in-groups and out-groups. In-groups often have
this behavior regardless of country, religion or age.

I don't know how to correct this.

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thiagooffm
It might be because a lot of startups ended up becoming companies and we
started seeing how people change as soon as they have a lot of money and is
perceived to be successful.

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smt88
I see lots of positive messages (look at any thread about Rust or many of the
Show HN posts), but I get the most value out of the criticism and arguments on
HN, which some might call "negativity".

Also, people write about and discuss things that are relevant to them. All
those topics are relevant to our industry, if not our everyday lives. Why
shouldn't we talk about them?

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telebone_man
I would say you can have a constructive conversation in both a negative and
positive frame of mind!

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iLemming
Nothing wrong with the world, you're getting old, that's it.

