Hacker News with Generative AI: Social Commentary

"The American Dream 2025" Elderly Walmart employee on a COPD machine and crying (reddit.com)
"The American Dream 2025" Elderly Walmart employee on a COPD machine and crying.
Social Commentary, Labor, Healthcare
45 points by dp-hackernews 13 days ago | 27 comments
From Philosophy to Power: The Misuse of René Girard by Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance (salmagundi.skidmore.edu)
This past summer, I was surprised to encounter a face I knew in two most unexpected places.
Philosophy, Politics, Social Commentary, Intellectual History
34 points by conanxin 13 days ago | 26 comments
Is America headed for an age of dumb phones? (businessinsider.com)
Why so many tech lovers are embracing the "appstinence" movement
Technology, Mobile Devices, Trends, Social Commentary
31 points by herbertl 13 days ago | 50 comments
It’s So Over, We’re So Back: Doomer Techno-Optimism (2024) (americanaffairsjournal.org)
Tyler Cowen caused quite a stir when he published *The Great Stagnation* in 2011, claiming America achieved success by eating “all the low-hanging fruit of modern history” and was in for a period of stagnation.
Technology, Economics, Culture, Social Commentary
36 points by Multicomp 16 days ago | 28 comments
The Inequality Myth – Western Societies Are Growing More Equal, Not Less (foreignaffairs.com)
Spend a few minutes browsing political commentary or scrolling social media and you will discover a seemingly settled truth: inequality in the West is soaring, the middle class is being hollowed out, and democracies stand on the brink of oligarchy.
Economics, Inequality, Politics, Social Commentary
8 points by pseudolus 19 days ago | 7 comments
"You Will Own Nothing" [video] (youtube.com)
Future, Ownership, Technology, Social Commentary, Video
6 points by inatreecrown2 19 days ago | 0 comments
Europe Built Trains. America Built Highways and Regret. (nytimes.com)
How civilized to catch a train, enjoy a meal on board and then go to bed in a cozy cabin while the moonlit world zips past.
Transportation, Infrastructure, History, Social Commentary
18 points by mitchbob 20 days ago | 7 comments
Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites from Their Wasted Lives (nytimes.com)
The world is full of highly intelligent, impressively accomplished and status-aware people whose greatest ambitions seem to start and stop with themselves. For Rutger Bregman, those people represent an irresistible opportunity.
Philosophy, Self-Improvement, Social Commentary
11 points by mitchbob 20 days ago | 5 comments
Rutger Bregman Wants to Save Elites from Their Wasted Lives (nytimes.com)
The world is full of highly intelligent, impressively accomplished and status-aware people whose greatest ambitions seem to start and stop with themselves. For Rutger Bregman, those people represent an irresistible opportunity.
Philosophy, Social Commentary, Success, Human Potential, Elite
5 points by umarniz 21 days ago | 1 comments
Yarvin's blueprint of a CEO-led American monarchy (theconversation.com)
The plan was simple. It started by retiring all government employees by offering them incentives to leave and never return. To avoid anarchy and keep authority, the police and military would be retained.
Politics, Government, Social Commentary, Leadership
18 points by rstuart4133 22 days ago | 2 comments
Tech oligarchs are gambling our future on a fantasy (theguardian.com)
It’s tempting to believe that tech billionaires’ embrace of Donald Trump and the far right is a sudden rupture with the usual political ideology of Silicon Valley.
Technology, Politics, Social Commentary
12 points by doener 25 days ago | 5 comments
Tech oligarchs are gambling our future on a fantasy (theguardian.com)
It’s tempting to believe that tech billionaires’ embrace of Donald Trump and the far right is a sudden rupture with the usual political ideology of Silicon Valley.
Technology, Politics, Social Commentary
12 points by NotInOurNames 28 days ago | 0 comments
First 100 Days of Corruption (youtube.com)
Corruption, Politics, YouTube, Social Commentary
9 points by adrithmetiqa 31 days ago | 0 comments
Mississippi Can't Possibly Have Good Schools (educationdaly.us)
Painting the Deep South as an embarrassing cultural backwater is one of the last socially acceptable forms of prejudice among elites. It’s not just tolerated - it’s venerated.
Education, Social Commentary, Prejudice
104 points by pkrecker 31 days ago | 214 comments
Umarell (wikipedia.org)
Umarell (Italian spelling of the Bolognese Emilian word umarèl, Emilian pronunciation: [umaˈrɛːl]; plural umarî) are men of retirement age who spend their time watching construction sites, especially roadworks – stereotypically with hands clasped behind their back and offering unwanted advice to the workers.[1] Its literal meaning is "little man" (also umaréin).[2] The term is employed as lighthearted mockery or self-deprecation.
Culture, Italy, Social Commentary, Linguistics
10 points by veqq 32 days ago | 2 comments
The New Control Society (thenewatlantis.com)
The gatekeepers are dying. Why is everything so mid?
Social Commentary, Culture, Technology
30 points by Michelangelo11 33 days ago | 23 comments
MAGA's War on Science (paulkrugman.substack.com)
Why do these people believe that ignorance is strength?
Politics, Science, Social Commentary
13 points by rbanffy 35 days ago | 0 comments
The Anti-Capitalist Case for Standards (mitpress.mit.edu)
“It is easier to imagine an end to the world than an end to capitalism,” the saying goes. Indeed, as climate disasters intensify, liberal democracies crumble, and economic instability deepens, visions of collapse seem far more tangible than those of a post-capitalist future.
Politics, Economics, Climate Change, Social Commentary
29 points by kelseyfrog 36 days ago | 64 comments
The Fantasy of a Nonprofit Dating App (theatlantic.com)
Imagine if digital matchmakers had no financial incentives.
Dating Apps, Nonprofit Organizations, Social Commentary
22 points by handfuloflight 37 days ago | 7 comments
Ted Kaczynski's brother wrote him for decades to explain why he turned him in (nytimes.com)
Ted Kaczynski, whose anti-tech rants are finding a new generation of readers, shunned the brother who called the F.B.I. in an effort to halt his campaign of violence.
Ted Kaczynski, Crime, Family, History, Social Commentary
29 points by axiomdata316 39 days ago | 17 comments
The Enshittification of Tech Jobs (pluralistic.net)
Tech workers are a weird choice for "princes of labor," but for decades they've enjoyed unparalleled labor power, expressed in high wages, lavish stock grants, and whimsical campuses with free laundry and dry-cleaning, gourmet cafeterias, and kombucha on tap:
Tech Industry, Labor, Economics, Social Commentary
13 points by NotInOurNames 40 days ago | 0 comments
The Enshittification of Tech Jobs (pluralistic.net)
Tech workers are a weird choice for "princes of labor," but for decades they've enjoyed unparalleled labor power, expressed in high wages, lavish stock grants, and whimsical campuses with free laundry and dry-cleaning, gourmet cafeterias, and kombucha on tap:
Tech Industry, Labor, Economics, Social Commentary
15 points by NotInOurNames 40 days ago | 0 comments
YC founder points out that jobs exist outside of working for police state (bird.makeup)
It's a very exciting time in tech right now. If you're a first-rate programmer, there are a huge number of other places you can go work rather than at the company building the infrastructure of the police state.
Tech, Employment, Politics, Social Commentary
95 points by _emacsomancer_ 41 days ago | 48 comments
Old Nerds, New Nerds (retconnedone.substack.com)
Paul Graham writes a lot about nerds. In “Why Nerds are Unpopular,” he ranks the lunch tables. There were the popular kids, the nerds, and everyone else in between. He writes about the persecution of nerds, of junior high bullying, and a time when the category of “nerd“ was meaningful. I thought nerds were a movie trope. Who acts like this anymore?
Social Commentary, Technology, Culture, Nerds
21 points by ark296 42 days ago | 1 comments
Reading RSS content is a skilled activity (doliver.org)
Shit's gotten weird out there. The internet has devolved from something that was mostly quirky and altruistic to something that, in many ways, is straight-up evil.
Internet Culture, Social Commentary, Technology
146 points by d0liver 42 days ago | 87 comments
I made a college punching bag for rejected highschoolers (plor.ing)
Humor, Social Commentary, Education
54 points by skillseeddev 43 days ago | 29 comments
Careless People (pluralistic.net)
Careless People, Social Commentary, Essays
1071 points by Aldipower 44 days ago | 537 comments
The Dangerous Ideas of "Longtermism" and "Existential Risk" (currentaffairs.org)
So-called rationalists have created a disturbing secular religion that looks like it addresses humanity’s deepest problems, but actually justifies pursuing the social preferences of elites.
Philosophy, Social Commentary, Ethics, Artificial Intelligence
15 points by amarcheschi 46 days ago | 21 comments
Bad trip coming for AI hype as humanity tools up to fight back (theregister.com)
Opinion 6:56 PM. April 11, 2025. Write it down. That's the precise moment the tech-bro-niverse imploded due to the gravitational force of irony at its core. That was the moment Jack Dorsey posted "Delete all IP law" on X. A little later, Elon Musk added his approval with "I agree."
Artificial Intelligence, Technology, Social Commentary, Opinion
13 points by rntn 46 days ago | 0 comments
PaulG on building the infrastructure of the police state (twitter.com)
Something went wrong, but don’t fret — let’s give it another shot.
Police State, Surveillance, Technology, Social Commentary
46 points by pmcjones 46 days ago | 24 comments