> All work under capitalism is exploitative and all work that involves emotional labor (e.g. all service work) can be particularly damaging, but sex work is its own separate beast [...].
Instead of reading the first part of the sentence as a statement of some kind of general truth, I read it as an axiom to the rest of the sentence in which it relatively made very good common sense.
I guess this difference in reading might explain the downvotes I was wondering about.
There are good reasons for this HN guideline:
"Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize."
After watching the first linked video (and finding it to be mostly unsubstantiated meta-rambling and call to arms), I'm assuming hnbad might actually consider the "all work under capitalism is exploitative" as some truth they rally behind. That's something I disagree strongly against, and thus would be tempted to blindly downvote. Yet, by taking a "favorable" (for me) interpretation of the post, instead of trying to guess what side the poster aligns on, the point of the argumentation remains and I'm enriched from having read it.
I would recommend that you watch the second video. The first one is not something you can get anything out of without a lot of baggage and even then there is much to disagree with. The second is much better.
I don't think anyone actually believes that literally all work under capitalism is exploitive outside of very specific definitions of work, exploitative, and capitalism. It is meant as common sense.
Instead of reading the first part of the sentence as a statement of some kind of general truth, I read it as an axiom to the rest of the sentence in which it relatively made very good common sense.
I guess this difference in reading might explain the downvotes I was wondering about.
There are good reasons for this HN guideline: "Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize."
After watching the first linked video (and finding it to be mostly unsubstantiated meta-rambling and call to arms), I'm assuming hnbad might actually consider the "all work under capitalism is exploitative" as some truth they rally behind. That's something I disagree strongly against, and thus would be tempted to blindly downvote. Yet, by taking a "favorable" (for me) interpretation of the post, instead of trying to guess what side the poster aligns on, the point of the argumentation remains and I'm enriched from having read it.