4 ms·

Can someone explain to me why every Covid submission that makes it to the front page of HN seems to take the 'denialist' perspective? Is an agenda being pushed?

Can someone explain to me why every Covid submission that makes it to the front page of HN seems to take the 'denialist' perspective? Is an agenda being pushed? There must be so much important science being done right now, surely we would rather hear about that.

dang 6y ago
I haven't been counting, but HN has had lots of covid-related submissions and I'm pretty sure most have been from a majority perspective. It's dangerous to make generalizations like "every $foo that makes it to the front page of HN". Such perceptions are notoriously subject to bias, for example the bias where people are more likely to notice (and put more weight on) posts that they dislike/disagree with than posts they like/agree with. If you think about it, that phenomenon would predict that all sides feel like the site is biased against their perspective, which is exactly what we observe. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=notice%20dislike%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...
rsynnott 6y ago
I feel like the normal stuff gets flagged more than the fringe stuff, possibly because it’s generally more pessimistic.
smallgovt 6y ago
How is this a 'denialist' perspective? The author is affirming that COVID is real and so widespread that some areas are reaching herd immunity...
- somewhereoutth 6y ago
  The idea is that if we have reached herd immunity then we can all go back to work/school and forget about Covid. This is a very dangerous line of thinking, and indeed is self fulfilling - ignoring Covid will sure enough result in herd immunity (assuming we get lasting immunity - unlike the common cold coronavirus!), but at the cost of thousands of lives and serious long term health effects.
cprayingmantis 6y ago
I was really suspicious about this article not for the content but rather about the actions of the poster. They created an account just to post this article. They have no other comments on any other articles. Their screen name is similar to the article's author's name. The site was just registered at the end of July. I try to always be hyper aware of who posts what and this looks like it's someone trying to make a name for their new site by posting something somewhat controversial but optimistic.

dang 6y ago

I haven't been counting, but HN has had lots of covid-related submissions and I'm pretty sure most have been from a majority perspective. It's dangerous to make generalizations like "every $foo that makes it to the front page of HN". Such perceptions are notoriously subject to bias, for example the bias where people are more likely to notice (and put more weight on) posts that they dislike/disagree with than posts they like/agree with. If you think about it, that phenomenon would predict that all sides feel like the site is biased against their perspective, which is exactly what we observe. https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sort=byDate&type=comment&query=notice%20dislike%20by:dang https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

rsynnott 6y ago

I feel like the normal stuff gets flagged more than the fringe stuff, possibly because it’s generally more pessimistic.

smallgovt 6y ago

How is this a 'denialist' perspective? The author is affirming that COVID is real and so widespread that some areas are reaching herd immunity...

somewhereoutth 6y ago
The idea is that if we have reached herd immunity then we can all go back to work/school and forget about Covid. This is a very dangerous line of thinking, and indeed is self fulfilling - ignoring Covid will sure enough result in herd immunity (assuming we get lasting immunity - unlike the common cold coronavirus!), but at the cost of thousands of lives and serious long term health effects.

cprayingmantis 6y ago

I was really suspicious about this article not for the content but rather about the actions of the poster. They created an account just to post this article. They have no other comments on any other articles. Their screen name is similar to the article's author's name. The site was just registered at the end of July. I try to always be hyper aware of who posts what and this looks like it's someone trying to make a name for their new site by posting something somewhat controversial but optimistic.