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You were probably downvoted because people suspected what your edit demonstrates: that you were trying to whatabout attention away from the US. You’re absolute

You were probably downvoted because people suspected what your edit demonstrates: that you were trying to whatabout attention away from the US. You’re absolutely allowed to criticize other countries (Mauritania is pretty far from the Middle East BTW), but when you suddenly bring them up in a conversation that’s specifically about the US and a prominent figure in the American abolitionist movement, it looks like you’re trying to deflect. I gave you the benefit of the doubt, but it looks like the downvoters got it right.

anoncoward111 8y ago
I agree with the rest of your comment, but I absolutely must clarify: Mauritania is considered to be a constituent part of the "Maghreb" region, which, while it isn't the Middle East, it is certainly a part of the "Arab World". Furthermore, Mauritania has a crescent and star on their flag, and their state religion is Islam.
- mikeash 8y ago
  Yes, the whole point of my aside there was to correct the tendency to say “Middle East” when taking about the Arab or Islamic world.
EGreg 8y ago
Why do you think the downvoters got it right? When Paris was attacked, and Beirut on same day, only France was being remembered. Somehow we haven't yet learned to care about people being hurt in other places in the world if we're not living there, if it's not part of "us". We need to start thinking of people as equal regardless of where they live. Anyway, when I saw that Facebook only let you put up the French flag I made https://customizeyourpic.com https://customizeyourpic.com And you can hear what I really think in the video there.
- mikeash 8y ago
  I think they got it right that you’re not interested in discussing the topic at hand, and would rather hijack the conversation to talk about your pet issues.
  - EGreg 8y ago
    The topic at hand is slavery of Black people. I am talking about slavery of Black people that continued to happen and, by the way, is happening today. And instead of discussing the actual issue, it’s considered hijacking? I have seen Hacker News comments of all types on an article, some heavily upvoted, that are on a tangential topic. Very often they were even political or opinions on other tech platforms or the landscape of tech in the FIELD of the article. It happens so often on HN that I am truly bewildered as to how this is not just special pleading / double standard invoked specifically because what I am doing is currently politically incorrect: talking about issue X happening more recently and in the rest of the world, which takes away from talking about the history of the country where most HNers live. Just step away for a second and think about it. Is it really a healthy response when I say Black people have continued to be enslaved long after the Emancipation proclamation in the USA, that for millions of Negroes in other parts of the world this continued, to say it is “hijacking to talk about my pet issues”?

anoncoward111 8y ago

I agree with the rest of your comment, but I absolutely must clarify: Mauritania is considered to be a constituent part of the "Maghreb" region, which, while it isn't the Middle East, it is certainly a part of the "Arab World". Furthermore, Mauritania has a crescent and star on their flag, and their state religion is Islam.

mikeash 8y ago
Yes, the whole point of my aside there was to correct the tendency to say “Middle East” when taking about the Arab or Islamic world.

EGreg 8y ago

Why do you think the downvoters got it right? When Paris was attacked, and Beirut on same day, only France was being remembered. Somehow we haven't yet learned to care about people being hurt in other places in the world if we're not living there, if it's not part of "us". We need to start thinking of people as equal regardless of where they live. Anyway, when I saw that Facebook only let you put up the French flag I made https://customizeyourpic.com https://customizeyourpic.com And you can hear what I really think in the video there.

mikeash 8y ago
I think they got it right that you’re not interested in discussing the topic at hand, and would rather hijack the conversation to talk about your pet issues.
- EGreg 8y ago
  The topic at hand is slavery of Black people. I am talking about slavery of Black people that continued to happen and, by the way, is happening today. And instead of discussing the actual issue, it’s considered hijacking? I have seen Hacker News comments of all types on an article, some heavily upvoted, that are on a tangential topic. Very often they were even political or opinions on other tech platforms or the landscape of tech in the FIELD of the article. It happens so often on HN that I am truly bewildered as to how this is not just special pleading / double standard invoked specifically because what I am doing is currently politically incorrect: talking about issue X happening more recently and in the rest of the world, which takes away from talking about the history of the country where most HNers live. Just step away for a second and think about it. Is it really a healthy response when I say Black people have continued to be enslaved long after the Emancipation proclamation in the USA, that for millions of Negroes in other parts of the world this continued, to say it is “hijacking to talk about my pet issues”?