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I signed up on their website, went through the onboarding flow and joined a couple of communities. Without them knowing anything about my political leanings the

I signed up on their website, went through the onboarding flow and joined a couple of communities. Without them knowing anything about my political leanings they suggested a bunch of anti-Trump communities. I guess they're not trying to solve the "filter bubble" issue, but rather becoming the Reddit for liberals? I mean it's their business for them to run as they like, but I hope somebody can take us past the Breitbart vs Huffington Post dichotomy.

loblollyboy 10y ago
Honestly, the best solution right now is probably just to find good subreddits. Or whatever blogs/forums there are out there for your interests. And although I can't really say I give a damn about tech/coding/etc. until I have to use it; I have yet to find more enlightening, balanced discussions of politicized issues than what is on HN.
zzzeek 10y ago
It sounds like a fair amount of statements directly made by Trump on the campaign trail (mocking a disabled person, telling people to check out the "sex tape" of a former Miss universe he didn't like, many other statements) would themselves not be allowed on this site, so it's not surprising it would be naturally anti-Trump. I highly doubt it would have any such attitudes towards people like Jeb Bush or Rand Paul who are decidedly not liberal.
- glenra 10y ago
  Trump didn't actually "mock a disabled person", at least not for their disability. Trump does do sort of a stammering spastic schtick in speeches to poke fun at people who have had to retrench after a misstatement. But: (1) Trump does that same impression for anyone who has had to correct a misstatement about Trump. (2) The time Trump was accused of doing it to mock a disabled person, his impression was the exact opposite of that disabled person's actual mannerisms. The person Trump is alleged to have "mocked" does not stammer and is not spastic and doesn't move his hands around at all, rather than waving them around wildly. The meme claiming Trump "mocked a disabled person" was only plausible to people who had never met or seen video of that disabled person. (It was helped to spread via a single-frame screen capture; video would have given the game away.)
  - JoeAltmaier 10y ago
    Greeeat! The guy who is now spokesperson worldwide for all of us here in the USA, does a spastic schtick all the time and doesn't have a clue why that would be amazingly insulting and demeaning.
    - deleted 10y ago
      [deleted]
  - zzzeek 10y ago
    I watched the video and it is still completely obvious he was mocking that person's disability. perhaps you've never been mocked before but exaggeration is part of it.
    - glenra 10y ago
      You may have seen video of Trump, but you haven't seen video of the reporter in question. Here's some video of the reporter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baUuXQ443fA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baUuXQ443fA And here's Trump doing a similar impression of Ted Cruz (who is not disabled): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4604reEqk0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4604reEqk0 You can find more relevant videos (including one where Trump does a similar waving-hands-around thing in reference to an army general who also is not handicapped) and additional background info here: https://www.catholics4trump.com/the-true-story-donald-trump-did-not-mock-a-reporters-disability/ https://www.catholics4trump.com/the-true-story-donald-trump-... Upshot: Trump seems to have treated this reporter exactly the same way he treats other, non-disabled people. Like Ted Cruz and an army general. If Trump were aware the reporter was handicapped, it doesn't show in the video. Trump appears to be an equal-opportunity mocker; his mocking mannerisms do not discriminate between targets on the basis of physical ability. :-)
      - zzzeek 10y ago
        > Trump appears to be an equal-opportunity mocker; his mocking mannerisms do not discriminate between targets on the basis of physical ability. :-) even if that were true, it doesn't matter. If you had a fun joke you like to make imitating blowing your head off with a gun, and then one day you did it in front of some people and all the sudden someone breaks down...that person's spouse killed themselves in reality in just that way. What would a decent do? They'd say, "I'm so sorry!". That's all! they'd apologize. Even though they had no idea their "joke" was actually going to hurt someone. So even if Trump's lie that he didn't know this reporter were true, if he were decent (which he is absolutely not), he'd apologize (for real. Like, you just spilled your drink on someone at a party by accident apologize). The "jokes" we make are not always the same depending on context. Trump knew very well (despite lying that he didnt know this reporter personally) that the reporter in question was disabled. Even if his routine was 100% the same (which it wasn't), he still reveals himself to be a vile human being to launch into that impression knowing its resemblance to this person's actual physical disability. But IMO that's all moot because he knew damn well he was specifically imitating the guy's disability. After all, that is Trump's entire appeal. He doesn't care about so-called "PC". That's the basis by which his voters like him, why can't they just own that? Just own it. These trollish denials like the youtube video are fooling nobody except his own supporters who might have some inner doubt that what he's doing is really acceptable (which it of course is not). He mocked a disabled person, and you think he has every right to do so, which in fact, he does! mock away. Mocking is not illegal. But neither is overwhelming disapproval of someone's behavior by others. Trump supporters need to get over it.
- rjeli 10y ago
  https://youtu.be/vk-fDRLSsQk https://youtu.be/vk-fDRLSsQk If you think Trump made fun of a disabled reporter, you may have been reading fake news
  - zzzeek 10y ago
    Politifact: "Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton is 'wrong' to say he mocked a disabled reporter": False "Trump may deny that he intentionally mocked Kovaleski for his disability, but many Americans believe his remarks amounted to mocking, and we concur that that’s a reasonable -- indeed, perhaps the only -- interpretation of his actions. The notion that Trump’s comments about Cruz and a general undercut Clinton’s claim don’t hold water, because all three examples constitute mocking, whether a disability was involved or not. We rate the statement False." http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/20/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-hillary-clinton-wrong-say-he-moc/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/...
    - rjeli 10y ago
      OK, do you have an actual response to what it shows? Seems cut-and-dry to me. edit: parent comment originally just said "that video is pathetic" https://i.sli.mg/g7PW3y.png https://i.sli.mg/g7PW3y.png
      - zzzeek 10y ago
        yes, the style in which he mocked the disabled reporter was completely different and is consistent with what I would observe while growing up in 1970s suburban Long Island (close to where Trump grew up in Queens). Maybe you're just not from New York. The Ted Cruz motions were not at all the same thing. Not to mention, being a decent human being would mean that even if you do have the same "mockery" routine for everyone, you'd hold off doing it towards someone where your routine clearly is going to be interpreted that way. As we're talking about a site that bans people who don't treat each other decently.
noobermin 10y ago
Perhaps luck of the draw? I just signed up and saw two anti-Trump communities. The rest were just random groups.
NotAMoose 10y ago
The suggestions are random based on interests you've chosen, and based on how the volunteer community leaders (mods) have tagged their communities. So if you picked "politics" as an interest during onboarding, it will suggest popular communities that have been tagged as such. If there were popular republican communities on the site, our system would recommend those to you. We're a new site, and our userbase so far is pretty liberal leaning.
gdulli 10y ago
In 2008 and 2012 respectively, neither the McCain nor Romney campaigns were associated with rampant fraud, demagoguery, and indecency. I didn't vote for either of them, but I didn't believe that they were terrible. The Trump campaign earned a certain image not because it was the Republican ticket but because of its unique properties. There's a price to be paid for that, period. Such as, a lot of communities won't want to have anything to do with it.
- arama471 10y ago
  But he's still the republican candidate (who will also unfortunately be the republican president of these united states). The issue here is taking all of the moderate republicans and putting them in a situation where they only feel welcomed by the extreme variant, and limiting their ability to see coherent counter arguments to what the extreme variant says. If we set up this dichotomy we will create many problems for ourselves down the line.
- wyager 10y ago
  > rampant fraud To be clear, you are accusing the Republican campaign of this?
iuguy 10y ago
I signed up and they suggested I join the Fempire community. I have to say I had high hopes for Imzy, but my experience was less than positive. I found it really quite slow and heavy (hopefully this has improved). I also found that the signal to noise ratio was really poor when I was a member, and a lot of the content was deeply polarising. That's not to say that one particular set of views are good or bad, but that it tended to reinforce the same views and ideas, creating a bit of an echo chamber filled with noise. (FWIW I've seen this to a lesser extent with Voat too, but that's an entirely different kind of animal). I think the left/right dichotomy is going to exist for a while, especially in anywhere that supports political or politicised discussion. HN did it's best with a no politics week, hopefully that will take some of the heat out of what's a very emotionally charged time for many.

loblollyboy 10y ago

Honestly, the best solution right now is probably just to find good subreddits. Or whatever blogs/forums there are out there for your interests. And although I can't really say I give a damn about tech/coding/etc. until I have to use it; I have yet to find more enlightening, balanced discussions of politicized issues than what is on HN.

zzzeek 10y ago

It sounds like a fair amount of statements directly made by Trump on the campaign trail (mocking a disabled person, telling people to check out the "sex tape" of a former Miss universe he didn't like, many other statements) would themselves not be allowed on this site, so it's not surprising it would be naturally anti-Trump. I highly doubt it would have any such attitudes towards people like Jeb Bush or Rand Paul who are decidedly not liberal.

glenra 10y ago
Trump didn't actually "mock a disabled person", at least not for their disability. Trump does do sort of a stammering spastic schtick in speeches to poke fun at people who have had to retrench after a misstatement. But: (1) Trump does that same impression for anyone who has had to correct a misstatement about Trump. (2) The time Trump was accused of doing it to mock a disabled person, his impression was the exact opposite of that disabled person's actual mannerisms. The person Trump is alleged to have "mocked" does not stammer and is not spastic and doesn't move his hands around at all, rather than waving them around wildly. The meme claiming Trump "mocked a disabled person" was only plausible to people who had never met or seen video of that disabled person. (It was helped to spread via a single-frame screen capture; video would have given the game away.)
- JoeAltmaier 10y ago
  Greeeat! The guy who is now spokesperson worldwide for all of us here in the USA, does a spastic schtick all the time and doesn't have a clue why that would be amazingly insulting and demeaning.
  - deleted 10y ago
    [deleted]
- zzzeek 10y ago
  I watched the video and it is still completely obvious he was mocking that person's disability. perhaps you've never been mocked before but exaggeration is part of it.
  - glenra 10y ago
    You may have seen video of Trump, but you haven't seen video of the reporter in question. Here's some video of the reporter: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baUuXQ443fA https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=baUuXQ443fA And here's Trump doing a similar impression of Ted Cruz (who is not disabled): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4604reEqk0 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M4604reEqk0 You can find more relevant videos (including one where Trump does a similar waving-hands-around thing in reference to an army general who also is not handicapped) and additional background info here: https://www.catholics4trump.com/the-true-story-donald-trump-did-not-mock-a-reporters-disability/ https://www.catholics4trump.com/the-true-story-donald-trump-... Upshot: Trump seems to have treated this reporter exactly the same way he treats other, non-disabled people. Like Ted Cruz and an army general. If Trump were aware the reporter was handicapped, it doesn't show in the video. Trump appears to be an equal-opportunity mocker; his mocking mannerisms do not discriminate between targets on the basis of physical ability. :-)
    - zzzeek 10y ago
      > Trump appears to be an equal-opportunity mocker; his mocking mannerisms do not discriminate between targets on the basis of physical ability. :-) even if that were true, it doesn't matter. If you had a fun joke you like to make imitating blowing your head off with a gun, and then one day you did it in front of some people and all the sudden someone breaks down...that person's spouse killed themselves in reality in just that way. What would a decent do? They'd say, "I'm so sorry!". That's all! they'd apologize. Even though they had no idea their "joke" was actually going to hurt someone. So even if Trump's lie that he didn't know this reporter were true, if he were decent (which he is absolutely not), he'd apologize (for real. Like, you just spilled your drink on someone at a party by accident apologize). The "jokes" we make are not always the same depending on context. Trump knew very well (despite lying that he didnt know this reporter personally) that the reporter in question was disabled. Even if his routine was 100% the same (which it wasn't), he still reveals himself to be a vile human being to launch into that impression knowing its resemblance to this person's actual physical disability. But IMO that's all moot because he knew damn well he was specifically imitating the guy's disability. After all, that is Trump's entire appeal. He doesn't care about so-called "PC". That's the basis by which his voters like him, why can't they just own that? Just own it. These trollish denials like the youtube video are fooling nobody except his own supporters who might have some inner doubt that what he's doing is really acceptable (which it of course is not). He mocked a disabled person, and you think he has every right to do so, which in fact, he does! mock away. Mocking is not illegal. But neither is overwhelming disapproval of someone's behavior by others. Trump supporters need to get over it.
rjeli 10y ago
https://youtu.be/vk-fDRLSsQk https://youtu.be/vk-fDRLSsQk If you think Trump made fun of a disabled reporter, you may have been reading fake news
- zzzeek 10y ago
  Politifact: "Donald Trump says Hillary Clinton is 'wrong' to say he mocked a disabled reporter": False "Trump may deny that he intentionally mocked Kovaleski for his disability, but many Americans believe his remarks amounted to mocking, and we concur that that’s a reasonable -- indeed, perhaps the only -- interpretation of his actions. The notion that Trump’s comments about Cruz and a general undercut Clinton’s claim don’t hold water, because all three examples constitute mocking, whether a disability was involved or not. We rate the statement False." http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/20/donald-trump/donald-trump-says-hillary-clinton-wrong-say-he-moc/ http://www.politifact.com/truth-o-meter/statements/2016/oct/...
  - rjeli 10y ago
    OK, do you have an actual response to what it shows? Seems cut-and-dry to me. edit: parent comment originally just said "that video is pathetic" https://i.sli.mg/g7PW3y.png https://i.sli.mg/g7PW3y.png
    - zzzeek 10y ago
      yes, the style in which he mocked the disabled reporter was completely different and is consistent with what I would observe while growing up in 1970s suburban Long Island (close to where Trump grew up in Queens). Maybe you're just not from New York. The Ted Cruz motions were not at all the same thing. Not to mention, being a decent human being would mean that even if you do have the same "mockery" routine for everyone, you'd hold off doing it towards someone where your routine clearly is going to be interpreted that way. As we're talking about a site that bans people who don't treat each other decently.

noobermin 10y ago

Perhaps luck of the draw? I just signed up and saw two anti-Trump communities. The rest were just random groups.

NotAMoose 10y ago

The suggestions are random based on interests you've chosen, and based on how the volunteer community leaders (mods) have tagged their communities. So if you picked "politics" as an interest during onboarding, it will suggest popular communities that have been tagged as such. If there were popular republican communities on the site, our system would recommend those to you. We're a new site, and our userbase so far is pretty liberal leaning.

gdulli 10y ago

In 2008 and 2012 respectively, neither the McCain nor Romney campaigns were associated with rampant fraud, demagoguery, and indecency. I didn't vote for either of them, but I didn't believe that they were terrible. The Trump campaign earned a certain image not because it was the Republican ticket but because of its unique properties. There's a price to be paid for that, period. Such as, a lot of communities won't want to have anything to do with it.

arama471 10y ago
But he's still the republican candidate (who will also unfortunately be the republican president of these united states). The issue here is taking all of the moderate republicans and putting them in a situation where they only feel welcomed by the extreme variant, and limiting their ability to see coherent counter arguments to what the extreme variant says. If we set up this dichotomy we will create many problems for ourselves down the line.
wyager 10y ago
> rampant fraud To be clear, you are accusing the Republican campaign of this?

iuguy 10y ago

I signed up and they suggested I join the Fempire community. I have to say I had high hopes for Imzy, but my experience was less than positive. I found it really quite slow and heavy (hopefully this has improved). I also found that the signal to noise ratio was really poor when I was a member, and a lot of the content was deeply polarising. That's not to say that one particular set of views are good or bad, but that it tended to reinforce the same views and ideas, creating a bit of an echo chamber filled with noise. (FWIW I've seen this to a lesser extent with Voat too, but that's an entirely different kind of animal). I think the left/right dichotomy is going to exist for a while, especially in anywhere that supports political or politicised discussion. HN did it's best with a no politics week, hopefully that will take some of the heat out of what's a very emotionally charged time for many.