3 ms·

> I sometimes get accused of posting political pieces when, to my mind, they are interesting for sociological reasons. As politics has become more contentious

> I sometimes get accused of posting political pieces when, to my mind, they are interesting for sociological reasons. As politics has become more contentious in recent years, both parties have staked out more and more things as "theirs", which promotes people seeing information that is for or against (or even just about, and confirmation bias does the rest) one of these areas as being political. There's likely also an increased number of political articles as well, which contributes it's own little bit.

hunta2097 8y ago
Hacker News' evolution feels a lot like Slashdot's, which also had it's roots in hardcore tech. I hope it doesn't impact the content or discussion too much.
- dang 8y ago
  This perception has also been around forever: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6157485 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6157485. Presumably it's a mirage, since "turning into Slashdot/Digg/Reddit" would hardly have been a steady state.
DoreenMichele 8y ago
Well, I posted a tweet recently about the difficulties facing (some?) Native Americans in registering to vote. I hesitated to post it knowing it was clearly a political subject. But my interest was in how it was a kind of "bug" in the political system. Most likely, the two things were not specifically intended to disenfranchise Native voters. Neither taken alone is malicious. Taken together, the outcome is de facto disenfranchisement. I'm very slightly Cherokee. I've begun following more Native American twitter accounts and I started a new blog to explore my Native heritage a bit. I've posted a number of items about Native issues because that's something I happen to be reading here lately. There's no political agenda there, though I keep waiting to be accused of such. I post things I happen to trip across. HN can upvote or flag (or just ignore) as it sees fit. I've largely given up on predicting what works here. I have essentially zero ability to do that.
- kbenson 8y ago
  > I've largely given up on predicting what works here. I have essentially zero ability to do that. That's part of what makes it fun, at least when it's general randomness that pulls really interesting people into the discussion :) > Most likely, the two things were not specifically intended to disenfranchise Native voters. Neither taken alone is malicious. Taken together, the outcome is de facto disenfranchisement. I think that would have been an interesting discussion, if it could have avoided devolving into political tribalism. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether it could have. I will say it's interesting to be early in a submission that slightly contentious and to help or see some early comments steered or redirected usefully, and see an article that spent a few minutes flagged come back to life.
nostrademons 8y ago
> both parties have staked out more and more things as "theirs" As someone who identifies as a relatively apolitical moderate, this has gotten ridiculous in recent years. I mean, whoever thought that "social justice", "science", "reality-based", "clean air", or "international relations" would be identified as partisan liberal issues, or "freedom of speech", "strong economy", or "life" could be partisan conservative issues? Even more strangely, both sides have claimed "rule of law", and yet it seems to mean completely opposite things depending on who says it.
- kbenson 8y ago
  Definitely. I'm left more and more with feeling like I was happily walking around the center of a party chatting with people, and next thing I know, I look up and the majority of people have rushed the walls, leaving me milling about with with a few other people just as surprised as me.

hunta2097 8y ago

Hacker News' evolution feels a lot like Slashdot's, which also had it's roots in hardcore tech. I hope it doesn't impact the content or discussion too much.

dang 8y ago
This perception has also been around forever: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6157485 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6157485. Presumably it's a mirage, since "turning into Slashdot/Digg/Reddit" would hardly have been a steady state.

DoreenMichele 8y ago

Well, I posted a tweet recently about the difficulties facing (some?) Native Americans in registering to vote. I hesitated to post it knowing it was clearly a political subject. But my interest was in how it was a kind of "bug" in the political system. Most likely, the two things were not specifically intended to disenfranchise Native voters. Neither taken alone is malicious. Taken together, the outcome is de facto disenfranchisement. I'm very slightly Cherokee. I've begun following more Native American twitter accounts and I started a new blog to explore my Native heritage a bit. I've posted a number of items about Native issues because that's something I happen to be reading here lately. There's no political agenda there, though I keep waiting to be accused of such. I post things I happen to trip across. HN can upvote or flag (or just ignore) as it sees fit. I've largely given up on predicting what works here. I have essentially zero ability to do that.

kbenson 8y ago
> I've largely given up on predicting what works here. I have essentially zero ability to do that. That's part of what makes it fun, at least when it's general randomness that pulls really interesting people into the discussion :) > Most likely, the two things were not specifically intended to disenfranchise Native voters. Neither taken alone is malicious. Taken together, the outcome is de facto disenfranchisement. I think that would have been an interesting discussion, if it could have avoided devolving into political tribalism. Your guess is as good as mine as to whether it could have. I will say it's interesting to be early in a submission that slightly contentious and to help or see some early comments steered or redirected usefully, and see an article that spent a few minutes flagged come back to life.

nostrademons 8y ago

> both parties have staked out more and more things as "theirs" As someone who identifies as a relatively apolitical moderate, this has gotten ridiculous in recent years. I mean, whoever thought that "social justice", "science", "reality-based", "clean air", or "international relations" would be identified as partisan liberal issues, or "freedom of speech", "strong economy", or "life" could be partisan conservative issues? Even more strangely, both sides have claimed "rule of law", and yet it seems to mean completely opposite things depending on who says it.

kbenson 8y ago
Definitely. I'm left more and more with feeling like I was happily walking around the center of a party chatting with people, and next thing I know, I look up and the majority of people have rushed the walls, leaving me milling about with with a few other people just as surprised as me.