Hacker News: SauntSolaire

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:38:05 +0000

Those are not inalienable rights either, they're legal rights. Here, courtesy of Cornell law:

"An inalienable right is a fundamental entitlement inherent to every person that cannot be sold, transferred, or taken away by the government. These rights, often called natural rights are considered essential, cannot be surrendered by the individual, and are not dependent on laws."

Just Google "is x an inalienable right" next time.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:34:37 +0000

You're proving my my point, the right to bear arms is a constitutional right, not an inalienable right. Please look up the definition of inalienable.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:24:31 +0000

You can lose a war, yet still keep your country. You can also win a war, yet still need to repopulate.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:19:19 +0000

They might, if they had a national registry of grip strength. Until then I suppose they'll stick with using the nearest proxy.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "German men 18-45 need military permit for extended stays abroad"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:16:19 +0000

A little crazier — the old were once young, and could have been voted into a war themselves.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 17:04:49 +0000

If you can't hold individuals responsible for signing contracts on the premise that they might not read them, you've simultaneously invalidated most contracts, increased the cost to enter a contract (essentially subsidizing the law industry), and severely limited the ability for individuals to enter into contracts — not to mention infantilizing adults who are fully capable of reading a document before signing it.

Furthermore, this was a severance agreement, not employment agreement, so having a lawyer review your contract is not going to delay you from starting your role.

I have my issues with this situation, but "they might not have read/understood the contract" isn't one of them.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:44:24 +0000

> The inalienable right to free speech doesn't extend to defamation and fraud

You have a strange definition of "inalienable".

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:42:25 +0000

You asserted that free speech was an inalienable right, they provided an example showing it's not.

They also could have mentioned: NDA's, hate speech, threats, incitement, purjury, defamation, security-clearances or state secrets.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:33:45 +0000

To be clear, I do agree with everything you've said here — I just disagree that freedom of speech is an inalienable right, and I don't think there's ever been a time or place where it has actually been considered one.

If it were up to me, I would require non-disparagement agreements to be standalone contracts, and cap the damages a company can claim to the amount they paid you to sign it. Once that number is met, the contract is void. That way the company only gets as much leverage as they're willing to pay for.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:13:17 +0000

I get that you're not a free speech maximalist, but that's still signing away a basic freedom.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 16:09:18 +0000

Freedom of speech is far from inalienable. Non-disclosure agreements are most relevant, but every country on earth also has at least some regulations regarding hate speech, threats, incitement, purjury, or defamation — not to mention security clearances or state secrets.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:59:52 +0000

That would also preclude non-disclosure agreements. I'm curious if you also find those unreasonable?

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:54:21 +0000

What's the need for a non-disparagement clause then? If they're a current employee, you have their continued employment as leverage.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:36:27 +0000

There's (perhaps unfortunately) nothing stopping you from signing away your freedom of speech.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Author of "Careless People" banned from saying anything negative about Meta"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 04 Apr 2026 15:32:12 +0000

A good reminder not to sign contracts with non-disparagement clauses, if you can help it. Seems like good territory for California to ban like they did with non-competes. At the very least they should be restricted from inclusion in severance agreements - at that point the company already has you over a barrel.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Meta and YouTube found negligent in landmark social media addiction case"

SauntSolaire — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:42:20 +0000

You're missing the negative affect node of the Koob addiction cycle, which exists for gambling but to a lesser degree than for nicotine.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Meta and YouTube found negligent in landmark social media addiction case"

SauntSolaire — Wed, 25 Mar 2026 19:08:46 +0000

> Not careful enough apparently: Nicotine isn't that addictive on its own, tobacco is.

That is a very strong claim to make when the current scientific consensus strongly disagrees.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Oil nears $110 a barrel after gas field strike"

SauntSolaire — Wed, 18 Mar 2026 19:27:10 +0000

The demand for oil will likely never truly go to zero; too many products (outside of energy generation) rely on their byproducts.

As for the bigger picture — yes, higher prices for oil might spur extraction in regions outside of the middle east, but that's a local only viewpoint. Globally, higher oil prices reduce consumption and make green alternatives more attractive on net.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "Qatar helium shutdown puts chip supply chain on a two-week clock"

SauntSolaire — Sat, 14 Mar 2026 03:11:30 +0000

But not where 99.99999% of the population lives.

New comment by SauntSolaire in "The Wyden Siren Goes Off Again: We’ll Be “Stunned” By What the NSA Is Doing"

SauntSolaire — Fri, 13 Mar 2026 21:50:02 +0000

The article lede reads: "Senator Ron Wyden says that when a secret interpretation of Section 702 is eventually declassified, the American public “will be stunned” to learn what the NSA has been doing."

Technically the full quote from Wyden is: "when it is eventually declassified, the American people will be stunned that it took so long and that Congress has been debating this authority with insufficient information."

It's a small thing, but I find the click-bait editorializing from techdirt a bit off-putting.