The problem is thay it's not even as extreme as the kkk, if your opinions don't mesh with the current progressive groupthink, you will be downvoted, ignored, and bullied.
The same happens to a lesser extent on HN, but without the bullying.
The end result is content that leans in only one direction because everyone else has been silenced, they don't bother posting, or they left.
The irony is that this behavior is exactly what progressives have claimed to be fighting (discrimination and online bullying)
The IRS has been a tool for the Democrats for decades. It can't be a coincidence that many more Republican/right leaning groups have been relentlessly audited.
The software that builds and displays the experience is the browser. Most webpages could be cut by 90% and be visually and functionally indistinguishable. For 90% of the last 10%, the functionality cut out would improve the user experience, especially on mobile.
Which only highlights the point of how overengineered it is. You shouldn't need (and in fact you don't need) several-layer tall stacks of programming languages and support equipment to render something that's less functional than a PowerPoint presentation.
The only way it will grow is if it's actually cheaper for the average consumer to use solar. It will most likely never be cheaper, because as soon as it it, the government adds a tax for lost revenue from standard electricity.
The same thing is happening with the electric car: Some states are now proposing a per/mile car usage tax (where a mandatory black box needs to be installed in your car to track it) to make up for the lost gas tax revenue.
What mechanism of paying for roads would you propose?
Light vehicles don't do a lot of damage to roads, but in many areas weathering takes quite a toll, so it can make sense to charge all users rather than push it all on shippers or whatever.
Also, do you have an example of governments taxing solar? The trend I'm more aware of is net metering, which is a great deal for the homeowner (the wholesale value of electricity is lower than household metering, on an open market the power company would not purchase power for the retail rate).
> What mechanism of paying for roads would you propose?
There are two purposes of the gas tax: (1) To pay for roads and (2) to provide incentives to conserve a valuable, limited resource (gas).
If we switch over to electric cars, taxing electricity makes sense from the standpoint of (2) because it's the valuable, limited resource that's being consumed by driving.
From the standpoint of (1), literally any source of government revenue will do. You can tax electricity. Or you can tax property (a lot of land's value, especially commercial / industrial, goes away if it isn't connected to a good road system). Or you can just use the general fund (basically everybody benefits from the enormous cross-industry economic gains of having functioning transportation infrastructure, so everybody should pay for it).
If there is no fee decrease for the average consumer, electric cars will never be fully adopted. Unchecked government greed is a big problem. There needs to be more government accountability in terms of spending.
Hawaii is putting a stop to solar. Taxing the panels and making it more cost effective to use standard electricity.
Why would it be wrong for you? Your goal is to start a business. This is your passion and something that interests you.
On the contrary, I know so many people that are not that interested in owning a business. They stumble on some sort of idea, but end up failing because they aren't willing to sacrifice and put the work into actually running it.
A business is tough. If you aren't interested in it, you won't make it in the long-run.
I worry that it's wrong for me because at the end of the day, the business is a means to an end. I desire the freedom, to work on my own projects, build my own things. Starting a business, seems like a way to have your job be something that actually interests you (and rewards you).
Sadly, what interests me is constantly in flux. It's hard to form a business around ideas that are fleeting.
We now live in an age where stating an opinion that is against the current narrative will get you fired or your personal life ruined.
I've seen so many people on Facebook talk negatively about Republicans, Christians, and white males with impunity.
You can't tell me how bad discrimination is, while at the same time being brutally discriminating against someone you don't like. It's this sort of hypocrisy that leads to people like Donald Trump running for president (and getting lots of support).
Why bother having ads anymore? I would just make an entire article or video one big advertisement for a product I am trying to sell.
This is the next logical step for ads..and all of the people that think they have some sort of power right now, will be surprised when there is truly no way to block it in a few years. Because popular sites need to make money to pay for hosting and when enough of them do this, you won't really be able to ignore it all.
Other alternatives might include major paywalls for content (if it gets bad enough) or a tech-savvy advertisement company that gets around these ad blockers (I actually have lots of good ideas that would work and might start a company myself).
The same thing happened with software. Companies were tired of fighting piracy, so they made everything in the 'cloud'.
I used to sell software and got tired of piracy. When I just ignored it, my sales would go down to almost nothing. The issue just isn't the copying of software. It's that these sites also start ranking higher than my own in Google and many people will get to the counterfeit copy first. Price never mattered. I could charge 99 cents and the piracy would stay pretty consistent.
I would also get people contacting me up trying to sue me because they downloaded an illegal copy, thought it was mine, and they got a virus/lost data. Of course they have no real basis for a case, but the time and effort involved in answering the inquiries was a huge waste of time.
Now, my customers don't even get to have a copy of it. They get to rent it for a fee every month (all hosted on our servers). It's great for me, but not for software freedom. It's really the only way to survive these days.
The app markets are pretty dismal as well. The only apps actually making a profit are the ones that are in the top 5. The rest are fighting for scraps. It's much better to give away your app for free as part of a paid, monthly service.
The price of the app alone really can't be used to sustain a business.
The sad thing is that the end result of all of this is the concentration of wealth to fewer, large and wealthy companies. Small companies can't handle the loss in revenue and it will mean less power for all of us.
You are actually contributing to further wealth inequality and ironically, trying to stop it at the same time.
temperature != climate. This is what all of the same people writing articles like this chirp out whenever someone talks about current temperature changes having anything to do with climate change.
Sounds like you're talking about rebuttals to dingbats who say things like, "it was cold today, so global warming is false." That's about local temperatures, which indeed are not relevant (except in aggregate) to climate. Global temperatures absolutely are relevant, though.
How do global temp avgs not have anything to do with climate?
I must admit though "Global Warming does not mean Global Warming" is at least a new one I haven't heard before, lol.
The thing is when it gets unusually warm everyone cries climate change and when it gets unusually cold it's completely dismissed. That's what OP is pointing out
So he is pointing out that when global temp avgs bust records everyone talks about global warming.. ok, I will give him that. I am not sure that makes much of a "point" though.
The same happens to a lesser extent on HN, but without the bullying.
The end result is content that leans in only one direction because everyone else has been silenced, they don't bother posting, or they left.
The irony is that this behavior is exactly what progressives have claimed to be fighting (discrimination and online bullying)
Edit: haha, the ironic downvoting happened fast.