Paul Graham blocked me on X because I quoted Hacker News's guidelines

I didn't defend anyone's stance. And obviously, interjecting into a "conversation" (if we can call one person hurling insults at another a conversation?) is joining the conversation, no matter what its about, but I changed the subject when I called out Paul for twisting Mike's words and then insulting him; I told them to be nicer (in a ironically condescending way, yes).

If Mike's tweet said something like: > iPhone owners don't do reviews of Android phones. Non-iPhone owners shouldn't review Android phones. ...

And Paul came by and said: > That's not true. iPhone owners who also own Android can review those phones. How can you be a tech reviewer and not know that?

And then I said:

> You should learn to respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize.

Would you say I'm now engaging in a technical review conversation? Or am I just being condescending while (pretending) to correct the behavior of someone with 2M followers?

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> The implication of your response is that there is a genuine/valid point the original poster is making.

Again, no, there is no implication of right or wrong doing because I criticized a guy for insulting someone else; I'm sorry you have that impression (or maybe you just want to argue with someone, which is fine, I just don't want to talk politics).

That said, I think there _is_ a genuine/valid point to what Mike said -- admitting that ideas contrary to your own have merit does not mean you agree with them, rather, it's a mark of intellectual honesty and maturity. Even communism and anarchy have merit, but I don't agree with those ideologies either. (dang it, cherry_tree, you've got me talking about politics! cut it out!)

> This is in itself a political statement.. And it’s an incorrect statement.

Was Mike precise in his choice of words? No. Technically correct (the best kind of correct!)? Also, no. But incorrect in the _context_ of the whole Tweet? Absolutely not. American citizens (who aren't citizens of another country) don't vote in those foreign elections (well, some probably have before, but not at the same magnitude Mike is worried about). If you and Paul don't think that's what Mike originally meant then you have a problem parsing English language.

> You defended someone who was wrong in a political conversation and you’re expecting people to back you up because you quoted something non-political?

No, I didn't defend anyone. I'd say I criticized Paul for his pedantry. And I didn't think random Internet strangers would back me up on anything. I also didn't think anyone would want to debate citizen/non-citizen voting rights with me over this either. But life can full of fun surprises!

> What you are doing in that twitter thread and in this thread are intellectually dishonest.

No, it isn't. It really just feels like you are projecting some disdain you have towards some group of people onto me, who you don't know.

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Anyway, the whole point of posting about this to HN was because I thought there was some humorous irony to it. I feel no ill-contempt towards Paul, Mike, you, or anyone else here. It's been fun (just stop trying to pull me into hot-topic politics please).

I replied to Paul because he took a single line in Mike's tweet as an independent statement without considering the context, and then turned around and insulted the OPs intelligence.

I'll try to break it down for you because your being so genuine.

I've explained the first line already. The next line follows up by saying that noncitizens (people who are not American citizens specifically) shouldn’t have the right to vote in U.S. elections. It then calls for the passage of something called the SAVE ACT, which Mike wants to be included in the upcoming September spending bill, to prevent noncitizens from voting. Finally, the tweet encourages people who agree with this idea to share the message with others, amplifying its reach.

I don't think I can break it down any further without coming off as patronizing.

And I hope it's very clear that I'm not reading the lines in the tweet as separate unconnected ideas.