These are message boards. The obvious sentiment, that firebombing attacks are awful (perhaps cut a little bit with "the perpetrator appears to be someone deeply in need of help) is boring. This is an availability bias issue: the only sentiments that actually spool out into threads are edgy. Once you learn to spot these effects, message boards make a lot more sense and are less jarring.

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Levitating 13 minutes ago | parent | next [-]

Besides I think the sentiment would be very different if anyone actually got hurt.

"causing a fire to an exterior gate" doesn't lead me to believe there was any chance of real harm.

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swat535 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Another good thread to follow is the murdering of UnitedHealthcare CEO Brian Thompson: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42317604

It's an interesting exercise to compare these threads.

My own position on the matter is the not an edgy one: political violence of any kind, is never justified, but it does signal that something deep in society requires a change.

	▲	tremon 3 hours ago \| parent \| next [-]
		I'm of the view that it's violence of the non-political kind that is never justified. Political violence can be legitimized, as an option of last resort. There's plenty of historical examples where groups of people were denied every avenue of redress until they turned violent. As an example, read up on the history of most labour unions. one exception being defense of life and limb.
	▲	3 hours ago \| parent \| prev \| next [-]
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	▲	cucumber3732842 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		I completely disagree. Political violence is the universal check on every political system that keeps it from sucking too much. The optimal amount of crazies getting off the porch at any one time is not zero much like the optimal amount of fraud is not zero.

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johnfn 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I think this is a little too optimistic:

- Go onto a Reddit thread about ICE, everyone in the comment threads says they don't like ICE. That's the obvious statement, not edgy.

- Go onto a Reddit thread about Trump, everyone says they don't like Trump. That's the obvious statement, not edgy.

Why would we think the Sam Altman thread is any different? I unfortunately think the Reddit thread might be the real deal, or at least a little more real than you are saying.

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frinxor 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

And the same applies to HN? Edgy messages make it to the top, and the reader should learn to react accordingly (in what way?)

	▲	tptacek 4 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Mostly just by not being emotionally destabilized by edgy comments, is all.

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4 hours ago | parent | prev [-]

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