3 ms·

I am posting anonymously here because of all the toxicity of this comment. Take away "Chinese" from his argument and he still has an argument. Your comment on

I am posting anonymously here because of all the toxicity of this comment. Take away "Chinese" from his argument and he still has an argument. Your comment on the other hand, is just throwing your emotions around. I suspect other commenters downvote him for the same reason. I find this every time an article about China comes up. Its infuriating because there is not legitimate discussion going on. It simply a downvoting war.

hd4 8y ago
Its not emotional when what he says is borne out by the direction any such discussion takes. What's wrong with questioning the obviously-concerted effort of downplaying anything done by the Chinese government, especially when we have a good idea of who is behind it (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party , https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiKhoT10JDdAhXOZ1AKHU1YArIQFjAAegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw0__waOhf3eQCocbRdb45jj https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...)?
- dang 8y ago
  That accusation doesn't hold up at all when we look at the data. Indeed you could easily know that for yourself by looking at the histories of most HN accounts that post on the topic. The "50 Cent Party" didn't show up in 2014 to argue about Emacs so they could astroturf HN today. (I'm making that example up, but it's typical.) This is really just a cheap shot, and there's a site guideline that specifically asks you not to: "Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. That degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data." What's true is: (1) HN users are divided on divisive topics, such as political questions surrounding China, so opposing views naturally show up here; and (2) HN commenters need to post substantively, avoid flamewars, and follow the rules at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

hd4 8y ago

Its not emotional when what he says is borne out by the direction any such discussion takes. What's wrong with questioning the obviously-concerted effort of downplaying anything done by the Chinese government, especially when we have a good idea of who is behind it (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/50_Cent_Party , https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://gking.harvard.edu/files/gking/files/50c.pdf&ved=2ahUKEwiKhoT10JDdAhXOZ1AKHU1YArIQFjAAegQIARAB&usg=AOvVaw0__waOhf3eQCocbRdb45jj https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...)?

dang 8y ago
That accusation doesn't hold up at all when we look at the data. Indeed you could easily know that for yourself by looking at the histories of most HN accounts that post on the topic. The "50 Cent Party" didn't show up in 2014 to argue about Emacs so they could astroturf HN today. (I'm making that example up, but it's typical.) This is really just a cheap shot, and there's a site guideline that specifically asks you not to: "Please don't impute astroturfing or shillage. That degrades discussion and is usually mistaken. If you're worried about it, email us and we'll look at the data." What's true is: (1) HN users are divided on divisive topics, such as political questions surrounding China, so opposing views naturally show up here; and (2) HN commenters need to post substantively, avoid flamewars, and follow the rules at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.