Hacker News: hxegon

New comment by hxegon in "Discord will require a face scan or ID for full access next month"

hxegon — Mon, 09 Feb 2026 19:32:07 +0000

Honestly I think this is necessary. I'm not sure how heavy handed their exact implementation of stuff like content filtering would be, but I've seen way too much sketchy stuff on discord servers. Predators, blackmail, harassment campaigns, it's not great and a lot of the servers I'm in already require ID verification by mods to even chat in general. It'd be great if this was opt-in on a server by server basis but I could see that being a problem too.

I've seen way too many governments / companies use "protect the children" as a way to try and push overreaching garbage policy, however I think this one actually might help.

That said, depends on exact details of how they want to do this. We'll see how it goes.

New comment by hxegon in "Why I Program in Lisp"

hxegon — Fri, 11 Apr 2025 12:44:05 +0000

I have about 6 years of ruby experience and if you're saying that ruby has "easily predictable syntax"...

You really should try lisp. I liked clojure a lot coming from ruby because it has a lot of nice ergonomics other lisps lack. I think youd get a lot out of it.

New comment by hxegon in "Supreme Court upholds TikTok ban, but Trump might offer lifeline"

hxegon — Fri, 17 Jan 2025 18:30:31 +0000

https://www.fda.gov/consumers/consumer-updates/ivermectin-an....

No ones impressed by your ignorance bro. Get help.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 17:18:54 +0000

Do you think mayyybeeee this hate stems from how young americans are treated and a complete lack of representation? Red note censors stuff about Chinese politics, they are surprisingly accepting of LGBTQ etc, and it's nice to talk with people from other countries you don't normally have interactions with. It's really not that hard to understand.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 17:04:36 +0000

You are arguing that my only reason for being against a genocide is either that I've been brainwashed or paid for. Get better at having basic human empathy. Israel is extremely relevant in this thread as pro-Palestinian sentiment is arguably the reason it's being banned.

You proved my point. You claim to be a free thinker and then try to dismiss what I'm saying by claiming I'm paid for without any substance.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 17:02:33 +0000

I don't have a point, that wasn't me talking about it. The Uyghur camps are horrible, horrible things, and legalized slavery in the US is also horrible. I don't think they are equal at all but tbh I just don't know enough about the Uyghur situation to have an educated opinion on it generally or specifically in regards to the tiktok situation.

Although I do think there's some degree of equivalence specifically in regard to a specific ethnic group being forced into labor since you mentioned it, but I don't want to go on a tangent because that's not what I brought up and not what I was talking about.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:53:28 +0000

Honestly I don't see a lot of people praising China who are against the tiktok ban. It's not just that our opinion of China is high, it's that our opinion of the US government is very low and they are our government, so why be worried about a foreign power when you feel like your own government is actively setting you up to fail, lying to your face and doing horrible shit.

I'll definitely admit that China is doing some horrible shit. I'm not the most educated on all of their issues but from what I've seen it's not great. But I'm also not convinced that TikTok is as much of a critical intelligence/espionage tool as much as the government claims it is, and I've seen a very real positive influence on people's connection with each other, and a frankly insane amount of mutual aid content on tiktok.

I am seeing a lot of people talking about how they have discovered that Chinese people are very welcoming and polite when you talk to them online. IDK, maybe I'm just missing the pro-chinese government stuff you are.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:45:51 +0000

Let me genuinely ask you something because you seem to be all over this thread with a strong different opinion, and I'm not so arrogant as to believe it's impossible that I'm wrong.

Do you really think, in real world terms, that China could not accomplish the types of infiltrations / surveillance it would deem strategically important without tiktok? Considering that they already compromise government systems on a regular basis (which I can provide links for if you're curious)

Do you genuinely think that corruption / lobbying has nothing to do with this ban? What is your primary concern that makes you in favor of this?

Do you look at things like facebook and instagram and either not see the blatant propaganda on there or not see a problem with it?

I'm just wondering if we are disagreeing on the facts or if we have fundamentally incompatable values, I want to understand.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:39:05 +0000

I understand what you're saying but that argument I don't think should apply here. Having some kind of evidence to back up a drastic action like this is not something that should be argued for, it should be a given. I've asked at least 5 different times for people to point to anything material, and no one has come up with anything. I'm not saying there is no threat, I could be wrong and there could be a massive threat, but if there is one shouldn't we be able to point to something more than "it could happen" and being paranoid about it? I'm being asked to have faith in institutions/politicians that have a long, long, long proven track record of not having my best interests at heart and I can't accept that when they have clear conflicting interests / motives.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:31:51 +0000

Do you have an actual counter-argument to this or do you just like pointing out that you don't think Palestinians have a right to live? Just because we disagree doesn't mean that I'm only against human rights violations and war crimes because China said they were bad. Is that how you live your life? Being a good little boy or girl and doing what uncle sam tells you to? If no, why do you assume other people aren't capable of thinking for themselves?

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:23:53 +0000

This is like saying that people who are against civilian casualties in the wars in iraq and Afghanistan are all pro 9/11 and love al-qaeda. How does the boot taste?

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 15:20:06 +0000

and why on earth would China want to start a war with us? We are a huge trading partner and yes there's a lot of posturing and conflicting geo-political interests, cultural views etc but that doesn't mean that war is their goal.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 01:11:22 +0000

Exactly. They keep fear mongering about China stealing our data but when these companies leak every single piece of sensitive data about hundreds of millions of americans they get a slap on the wrist. Tells you exactly where their priorities are.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 01:07:17 +0000

> This movement to 小红书 is also, surprise surprise, not some spontaneous movement. The people at 小红书 have intentionally be working on becoming a TikTok replacement for awhile now.

Provide literally one source for this. literally any source.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:55:04 +0000

Can you, someone, anyone in this toxic wasteland of a thread please point out what propaganda you're talking about? Point to an actual thing that justifies banning something 140M Americans use daily and don't just expound upon your vague national security paranoia.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:52:50 +0000

Yeah good thing they banned facebook as well which provably has a huge fake news / propaganda problem while tiktok... while tiktok has.... um... while tiktok... quick, tell me what propaganda tiktok has been pushing that's so much worse than FB or twitter or IG! You can do it! Can't you?

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:43:16 +0000

Ding ding ding

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:42:40 +0000

Again, this feels completely unrelated to the tiktok ban. It's fine for a venue of free speech to have rules, it's different for the government to ban a platform 1/3 of americans use because of intangible threats that are frankly an incredibly thin excuse for censorship.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:21:24 +0000

That's not how you win wars, that's how you start them. Diplomacy is a thing.

New comment by hxegon in "TikTok preparing for U.S. shut-off on Sunday"

hxegon — Thu, 16 Jan 2025 00:11:52 +0000

Yeah I think you're right. Unfortunately I'm coming to appreciate that many of the users here are heavily pro-censorship / "protect the children" types. Never thought I would see it happen. Feel like I'm waking up from a coma realizing everything's changed. It's so antithetical to the HN I knew and loved.