Comment by throw-7462637 | Hacker News Reader

Comment by throw-7462637 | Hacker News Reader

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Ouch. This comment backfired quite badly. Turns out the person being replied to is Korean, the commenter is likely not, and in addition this is how the authors wrote their names themselves.

Yet I do not wish this comment to be snarky. I’m interested in the broader perspective (and I apologize in advance to the parent for using this as an hook). The comment seems common of the present era in which polarization (leading to prejudice against anyone we believe is outside our in-group), and short attention span (leading to drive by/poorly researched comments), combine to low empathy among us. And just to be clear, I’m not putting myself above this, on a bad day this kind of comment could have come from me.

Am I right and things were better on the past on the empathy axis? Or am I exaggerating and getting old?

Just like I want to believe LK99 is RTAPS, I want to believe that you are correct.

But just like with LK99, this might be wishful thinking from me. I am also getting old.

You never write cjk names with firstname first, always surname first. Japanese usually complain, the others just shake their heads silently about the silly westerners.

When the original author writes his/her name american style he/she moved to america, but then he/she changed his firstname also. In this case some citations may started out wrong, as journalists have no idea how to write foreign names, scientists and experts usually do.

the commenter knows how write foreign names, even if some author succumbed to western stupidity.

Seeing mistakes about Korean names in the media is very common. It's a lost cause at this point

That's not the issue, though, the issue is staunchly defending something on behalf of some other group. It's noble, but it sometimes backfires because the group itself doesn't even care that much about the thing being defended.

It reminds me of the time that I got reprimanded at work for saying I'll "wear a rainbow scarf" together with a gay coworker and friend, when the coworker didn't even see what could be offensive in the statement.

What is offensive about wearing a rainbow scarf?

If I remember correctly (it's been a few years), it's because I'm not gay.

I think we're sort of climbing out of a local maximum of entropy. It's gotten better in some ways and worse at others. It'll take some time for everything to settle out.

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