5 ms·

HN is an echo chamber when it comes to tech choices, but it's absolutely not when it comes to politics. I've seen many pro-Trump supporters in the ranks here, w

by meritt 10y ago

HN is an echo chamber when it comes to tech choices, but it's absolutely not when it comes to politics. I've seen many pro-Trump supporters in the ranks here, which is very surprising given the demographic.

forgottenpass 10y ago
An echo chamber can include dissent and still be an echo chamber. In fact that's what keeps them alive long term. Is the same 5 or 6 conversations over and over really any less of an echo chamber than 2 or 3?
nibs 10y ago
It is fascinating the extent to which smart-ish coastal city liberals cannot conceive of an intelligent or even highly intelligent Trump voter. There are plenty of them.
falcolas 10y ago
Watching the front page through the historical lens of hckrnews.com was very insightful. By default, hckrnews shows articles which have made it onto the front page for at least a little bit of time. Then it would continue to display those, highlighting them in HN orange if they were still on the front page, or turning them black when they fell off (even marking them as dead with a faint grey font when appropriate). Pro Trump articles (and anti Clinton) would appear on in the sea of other articles, but they were always black or grey within a minute or two of their appearance. Pro Clinton articles were about 50/50 throughout the day, some staying, some being voted off. I attribute a lot of the lost articles to the feeling of "keep HN clear of politics", and a lot more to fringe/fanatical news sites making being flagged, but the overall trend of preferring Clinton to Trump was definitely visible. Bernie Sanders articles were ones which stayed up even longer than the others combined. So, long story short, yeah, HN is still quite the political echo chamber. It's understandable: many of us share both general job descriptions and life goals; I'd hazard a guess that most even share an age group and fall within a handful of ethnicities.
muad 10y ago
48% of the country voted for him, not a surprise to see his supporters represented in any group with 2 or more people.
jazzyk 10y ago
Why is it surprising? I like to come up with my own conclusions, which may - or may not - be what my demographic group "expects" me to.
k__ 10y ago
Really? When I read HN, I got the feeling, most political comments that get upvoted are phrased like "I know everyone here is a liberal leftist, BUT I have to tell you about my conservative right opinion right now, even if you don't wanna hear it!" But I never really encountered these "liberal leftist" majority here. Just in places of the Internet that don't have anything good to say about HN.
- advantark2 10y ago
  I think the difference with this site is that enough of us recognize that the world isn't black or white, but grey. It seems like most sites don't have the majority of people that think like that.
  - k__ 10y ago
    I'm not sure that this is the case. But I am sure that the majority of people here like to think of themselves as such.
- polotics 10y ago
  Word! (btw. Sanders would have won |-)

by meritt 10y ago

forgottenpass 10y ago

An echo chamber can include dissent and still be an echo chamber. In fact that's what keeps them alive long term. Is the same 5 or 6 conversations over and over really any less of an echo chamber than 2 or 3?

nibs 10y ago

It is fascinating the extent to which smart-ish coastal city liberals cannot conceive of an intelligent or even highly intelligent Trump voter. There are plenty of them.

falcolas 10y ago

Watching the front page through the historical lens of hckrnews.com was very insightful. By default, hckrnews shows articles which have made it onto the front page for at least a little bit of time. Then it would continue to display those, highlighting them in HN orange if they were still on the front page, or turning them black when they fell off (even marking them as dead with a faint grey font when appropriate). Pro Trump articles (and anti Clinton) would appear on in the sea of other articles, but they were always black or grey within a minute or two of their appearance. Pro Clinton articles were about 50/50 throughout the day, some staying, some being voted off. I attribute a lot of the lost articles to the feeling of "keep HN clear of politics", and a lot more to fringe/fanatical news sites making being flagged, but the overall trend of preferring Clinton to Trump was definitely visible. Bernie Sanders articles were ones which stayed up even longer than the others combined. So, long story short, yeah, HN is still quite the political echo chamber. It's understandable: many of us share both general job descriptions and life goals; I'd hazard a guess that most even share an age group and fall within a handful of ethnicities.

muad 10y ago

48% of the country voted for him, not a surprise to see his supporters represented in any group with 2 or more people.

jazzyk 10y ago

Why is it surprising? I like to come up with my own conclusions, which may - or may not - be what my demographic group "expects" me to.

k__ 10y ago

Really? When I read HN, I got the feeling, most political comments that get upvoted are phrased like "I know everyone here is a liberal leftist, BUT I have to tell you about my conservative right opinion right now, even if you don't wanna hear it!" But I never really encountered these "liberal leftist" majority here. Just in places of the Internet that don't have anything good to say about HN.

advantark2 10y ago
I think the difference with this site is that enough of us recognize that the world isn't black or white, but grey. It seems like most sites don't have the majority of people that think like that.
- k__ 10y ago
  I'm not sure that this is the case. But I am sure that the majority of people here like to think of themselves as such.
polotics 10y ago
Word! (btw. Sanders would have won |-)