"- being told you are constructing utopia while the system crumbles around you"<p>This is the one that resonated with me.<p>Obviously "the system" as a whole isn't objectively crumbling by traditional measures like GDP, but there were things that could give that feeling: Homeless sleeping in the subway and on the main streets, the smells, crime so rampant it's basically ignored (my car was broken into > 5 times), working relationships are brief and cold and high-pressure
"I am unprepared for people who don't understand jokes" -- Anton Troynikov<p>I don't know who he is but I really like this quote. That's consistently my biggest surprise on the internet. The #1 question I get for my posts is "Is that sarcasm?"<p>I never answer.
HyperNormalization looms large.<p>"everyone knew the system was failing, but as no one could imagine any alternative to the status quo, politicians and citizens were resigned to maintaining a pretense of a functioning society... Over time, this delusion became a self-fulfilling prophecy and the "fakeness" was accepted by everyone as real"<p><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HyperNormalisation</a>
Hilarious:<p>> So, soon they'll invade Afghanistan and get monthly limits for buying sugar and socks?<p>> I don't want to alarm u but they've been in afghan for 17 years
> living five adults to a two room apartment<p>This one has become terrifyingly normalized - even within the industry, people who don’t live this way are decadent irresponsible pigs. People who resent living this way are entitled redneck whiners. And despite all that, don’t you <i>dare</i> suggest you’re not really a member of the evil elite 1%.
One interesting thing is that this seems to be on the cusp of spawning an "In Silicon Valley ..." joke cycle.<p>* <a href="https://twitter.com/MarcLucke/status/1015211522111496193" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/MarcLucke/status/1015211522111496193</a><p>* <a href="https://twitter.com/Vietpdx/status/1015253367285673984" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/Vietpdx/status/1015253367285673984</a>
"[T]he economy is centrally planned, using opaque algorithms not fully understood by their users"<p>Loved this thread, but I think this one lost me. Does anyone know to what this is referring and mind explaining? Is this a comment on news feeds in apps, or is it a comment on the odd housing supply / zoning decisions? Or neither?
> - living five adults to a two room apartment<p>> - 'totally not illegal taxi' taxis by private citizens moonlighting to make ends meet<p>> - the plight of the working class is discussed mainly by people who do no work<p>> - the currency most people are talking about is fake and worthless<p>So true it hurts.<p>> - mandatory workplace political education<p>Is it really a thing?
I might add "- the government tries very hard to depict other places as deprived, backward wastelands so nobody wants to leave"<p>and thus nobody wants to work in somewhere more affordable than SF, e.g. Charlotte, where a roving pack of bloodthirsty rednecks will surely swarm out of the woods and tear them to pieces.
- Anyone who sounds like a wrecker must be reeducated. (q.e.d. <a href="https://twitter.com/DanielDoWrite/status/1015263695558135808" rel="nofollow">https://twitter.com/DanielDoWrite/status/1015263695558135808</a>)
Despite all the other meta comments in this thread it is an interesting commentary on public discourse in the U.S. that the messages like the OP are simultaneously interpreted as a satirical joke by some and as a straight literal comparison by others.<p>A U.S. hating defeatist will point to this list as proof that the U.S. is just as bad as Russia while giving no room for evidence to the contrary.<p>A loyalist can laugh all this off as hilarious while ignoring the reality of Trump's autocratic leanings.<p>In polls most voters are crying for moderate representatives and they just want people to reach across the aisle and get things done. But then come election day the polarizing extremist candidates end up getting the votes. As a population, the U.S. is in this self-torturous cycle where they cry for movement and change but in action they only perpetuate the gridlock and partisanship.<p>This climate really gives me respect for Sam Harris's approach: he really tries to interview others that have just enough of a different opinion so as to give rise to alternative viewpoints and interesting conversation while simultaneously striving to maintain an open, honest, and dispassionate discourse on emotional topics.
> the United States as a whole is depicted as evil by default<p>So true. The USA is viewed worse than China, Russia or Saudi Arabia.<p>I also see a lot of it on HN.
>bought a tesla<p>>thinks bitcoin is worthless<p>So this guy is the person that serves the programmers... right? People arent trusting him with user data at facebook... right?
Most of these are on one company. Overall the silicon valley is way better. And remember it's not a country.<p>Edit: I accept that I didn't get the joke.