Hacker News Reader

Comment by nandemo | Hacker News Reader

Please don't take it literally. I meant SWPL as in this:

and thought it would be understood.

What I mean is stuff that is too "liberal", too bland, too politically correct for my taste. A bit hypocritical at times. It's just my opinion; perhaps I should have phrased it differently.

This is only tangentially related to race, by the way. People all over the world (including me) love classical music etc, but by using a derogatory term I'm implying only the stuff I dislike. ;-)

View on HN

I understood you just fine, didn't take you literally, knew that you didn't mean to offend and still found your comment a bit annoying.

Annoying's not so bad, I wouldn't go as far as to say I was offended, although it's more out of repetition and boredom from the stereotype of certain subjects being cast as a white thing. I'm old enough to be over that kind of thing but can't pretend I don't notice. I'm not white and I love pretty much all the TED content - the SWPL comment just takes me back to high school.

If it makes you feel better, non-white people aren't immune to unintentional and mild racism either - nobody is. My in-laws constantly make jokes about white people and it grates my nerves when they do it too - they don't get a free pass just because they're Hispanic.

SWPL couldn't have taken you back to high school if you actually understood him just fine because the blog is only 2 years old.

What's the age of the blog got to do with it? It definitely takes me back to high school, because the parody culture it describes is much more in line with where I went to high school than with where I am now.

I felt the same way until I watched many of the presentations. TED has some very deep thinkers. I don't find deep, complex subjects "liberal" or "bland". Just my opinion.

I kind of understand, but I would really be interested in the "other stuff". I suppose for TED, ultimately the speakers are still selected by the organizers (don't know TED very well).

What would be a more exciting event? I suppose there already are some?

I'm curious too. It doesn't even have to be so ambitious as a whole event.

What would be an example of a talk that's more interesting than anything at TED?

And why couldn't such a talk simply be given at TED? Because "white people" wouldn't like it? Why not?

Some concrete examples would be a great help.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com