Comment by thinkingtoilet 2 days ago
Why do people feel the need to add qualifiers like "I’m a pretty hardcore SpaceX fan but...". Are you so attached to some company that it was hard for you to congratulate people on an accomplishment? It seems strange.
It's a way to add emphasis on "They did a good job". We could translate it as
"I'm somewhat biased against BlueOrigin, but BlueOrigin managed to overcome my personal bias with how impressive their launch was".
It's similar to saying "I normally don't like country music, but that was a good song". In that sentence the intended message isn't "I don't like country music", instead it's "I liked that song"
> Why do people feel the need to
Whenever it's used, it applies to the comment using it as well as the comment it's referring to.
It was just a reflex and a sports team rivalry is a good analogy. In other forums on the inet there's definitely a team spacex vs team blueorigin feeling. Think about American college football, imagine someone at UT congratulating A&M for scoring a touchdown. That would require finesse in some crowds :)
Because of the popularity of the ‘I’m no Elon fan’ preamble on HN.
There's such a thing as sports watching, when you're associating yourself with a team and are glad and sad together with them. I guess something like this could happen elsewhere...