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All of those harassments and trolling mainly happens as a back and forth between two streams of culture within the USA. And typically revolves around the topics

by KKPMW 6y ago

All of those harassments and trolling mainly happens as a back and forth between two streams of culture within the USA. And typically revolves around the topics of: "Black lives matter", "Racism", "Sexism in tech", "Transphobia" - all these things are internal US politics stuff. From the perspective of where I live (Eastern Europe): "Black lives matter" - We have very few black people living here. And very few problems with police in general. When something bad happens it typically happens to the police, not by the police. "Racism" - we have no history of slavery nor racism, except being subjected to it. Even more - originally the word "slave" was derived from the word "slav". "Sexism in tech" - there is no sexism in tech here. Tech is not even a prestigious field. People want to work in law, medicine and finance. Some can even be quite ashamed to admit they work in a technical field. "Transphobia" - even such things as thinking about "sex" and "gender" as different concepts are quite US specific. i.e. where I live we typically refer to people by their sex, and don't even have a term for a separate concept like gender. Yet these things are so pervasive on the internet. People even post their pronouns on twitter and (in this case) fill their GitHub profiles with that stuff. They can do it of course, it might even be a good thing to do. But I do not think this deserves a front page of HN. Hence why I am glad it was flagged.

AgentME 6y ago
The article isn't about her politics, it's about the harassment she got.
justusw 6y ago
To claim that any of the points that you have mentioned are merely political is absurd. Words themselves are apolitical, and to say "that's racist/sexist/etc.", is merely an observation, and does not represent a political opinion. The author of the article is not trying to promote a political agenda, asking you to support "cause A" or "cause B", they are merely trying to document a traumatizing experience that they have had. And even if it was US politics? A large chunk of HN users are from the US. And as you have given me your political opinion about transphobia being "US specific", so does the author of the article claim "This thing happened. That's bad."
eesmith 6y ago
"all these things are internal US politics stuff" I do not believe your statement is correct. Literally the first search I did was "police Poland" in a DDG news search on DDG and the third link was to earlier this month https://www.out.com/news/2020/8/10/polands-stonewall-police-attack-and-arrest-queer-protestors https://www.out.com/news/2020/8/10/polands-stonewall-police-... titled "Poland's Stonewall: Police Attack and Arrest Queer Protestors" : > Nearly 50 people were arrested following the arrest of trans activist Malgorzata Szutowicz, better known as Margot, on Friday. The protests come amidst a rise in homophobic hate and rhetoric, and the recent re-election of President Duda who called LGBTQ+ rights a foreign ideology that seeks to destroy basic Polish values. Or from https://euobserver.com/justice/149112 https://euobserver.com/justice/149112 : > Police were also investigating a separate case, in which a man on a balcony, next to a rainbow flag, grabbed his crotch during a World War II memorial march last weekend, Marczak said earlier. ... > "No democratic country should allow the kind of incidents we saw, in which police enters people's private homes," [Rafał Trzaskowski] added, referring to police efforts to stop the balcony protester last weekend. A DDG news search for "racism in Bulgaria" (literally my second search) includes this summary at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50060759 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50060759 about repeated racism by Bulgian football fans. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/20/bulgaria-sofia-racism-roma-everybody-hates-us-anti-gypsy-abuse https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/20/bulgaria-sofia... points out "While racist abuse of players inside stadiums attracts attention outside Bulgaria, within the country it is the Roma who are the principal targets of thugs in black and men in suits." A DDG news seach for "black lives matter Croatia" finds https://balkaninsight.com/2020/06/10/balkan-protesters-show-solidarity-with-black-lives-matter-movement/ https://balkaninsight.com/2020/06/10/balkan-protesters-show-... where we read "Activists in Zagreb, Belgrade, Podgorica, Warsaw and Sofia rallied to show solidarity but also to point out the problem of racism and police violence in their own countries. ... Dozens of people took part in a protest march in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica on Monday evening. “There is no doubt that racists are also hiding among all our local Balkan fascists.“"
- KKPMW 6y ago
  I do believe my statement is correct. You find some articles via google search about things like "black lives matter" in Croatia and claim it is relevant there somehow. There was a BLM protest in Lithuania too (where I am from). There were maybe 10 black people in that protest. Half of them when interviewed said they were traveling through different countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Poland) to create and initiate those protest. Then if you look at the people who attended - mostly teenagers. When asked why they are attending this protest they came up with "to show solidarity for US". Which is to say - they are being fed US politics over the internet and found an opportunity to join an event here. So that's how I see it. These US political things leak to other countries. Through media, through twitter and instagram, and now even through HN.
detaro 6y ago
"Black lives matter" specifically is a slogan with a US background, yes, but European countries do have racism, sexism and trans-rights issues, and there is really no point in pretending otherwise. EDIT: that's not to say that there aren't overly strong US influences in some topics, just that "oh that's a US-only thing" does not apply here.
stefantalpalaru 6y ago
> we have no history of slavery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Lithuania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Lithuania
watwut 6y ago
Ugh, slavs were quite racist against Jews in particular. Animosity against gypsies is clesr too, but treatment of Jews stands out in general. And currently, general opinions of many people in region are pretty racist ... it just does not come up until yoi discuss race. Also, I would really like to kmow where slavic you are that there ia no sexism against women in tech or girls. Amd i dont know slavic programmer ashamed of that, the job is pretty well paid.

by KKPMW 6y ago

AgentME 6y ago

The article isn't about her politics, it's about the harassment she got.

justusw 6y ago

To claim that any of the points that you have mentioned are merely political is absurd. Words themselves are apolitical, and to say "that's racist/sexist/etc.", is merely an observation, and does not represent a political opinion. The author of the article is not trying to promote a political agenda, asking you to support "cause A" or "cause B", they are merely trying to document a traumatizing experience that they have had. And even if it was US politics? A large chunk of HN users are from the US. And as you have given me your political opinion about transphobia being "US specific", so does the author of the article claim "This thing happened. That's bad."

eesmith 6y ago

"all these things are internal US politics stuff" I do not believe your statement is correct. Literally the first search I did was "police Poland" in a DDG news search on DDG and the third link was to earlier this month https://www.out.com/news/2020/8/10/polands-stonewall-police-attack-and-arrest-queer-protestors https://www.out.com/news/2020/8/10/polands-stonewall-police-... titled "Poland's Stonewall: Police Attack and Arrest Queer Protestors" : > Nearly 50 people were arrested following the arrest of trans activist Malgorzata Szutowicz, better known as Margot, on Friday. The protests come amidst a rise in homophobic hate and rhetoric, and the recent re-election of President Duda who called LGBTQ+ rights a foreign ideology that seeks to destroy basic Polish values. Or from https://euobserver.com/justice/149112 https://euobserver.com/justice/149112 : > Police were also investigating a separate case, in which a man on a balcony, next to a rainbow flag, grabbed his crotch during a World War II memorial march last weekend, Marczak said earlier. ... > "No democratic country should allow the kind of incidents we saw, in which police enters people's private homes," [Rafał Trzaskowski] added, referring to police efforts to stop the balcony protester last weekend. A DDG news search for "racism in Bulgaria" (literally my second search) includes this summary at https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50060759 https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-50060759 about repeated racism by Bulgian football fans. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/20/bulgaria-sofia-racism-roma-everybody-hates-us-anti-gypsy-abuse https://www.theguardian.com/world/2019/oct/20/bulgaria-sofia... points out "While racist abuse of players inside stadiums attracts attention outside Bulgaria, within the country it is the Roma who are the principal targets of thugs in black and men in suits." A DDG news seach for "black lives matter Croatia" finds https://balkaninsight.com/2020/06/10/balkan-protesters-show-solidarity-with-black-lives-matter-movement/ https://balkaninsight.com/2020/06/10/balkan-protesters-show-... where we read "Activists in Zagreb, Belgrade, Podgorica, Warsaw and Sofia rallied to show solidarity but also to point out the problem of racism and police violence in their own countries. ... Dozens of people took part in a protest march in the Montenegrin capital Podgorica on Monday evening. “There is no doubt that racists are also hiding among all our local Balkan fascists.“"

KKPMW 6y ago
I do believe my statement is correct. You find some articles via google search about things like "black lives matter" in Croatia and claim it is relevant there somehow. There was a BLM protest in Lithuania too (where I am from). There were maybe 10 black people in that protest. Half of them when interviewed said they were traveling through different countries (Estonia, Lithuania, Poland) to create and initiate those protest. Then if you look at the people who attended - mostly teenagers. When asked why they are attending this protest they came up with "to show solidarity for US". Which is to say - they are being fed US politics over the internet and found an opportunity to join an event here. So that's how I see it. These US political things leak to other countries. Through media, through twitter and instagram, and now even through HN.

detaro 6y ago

"Black lives matter" specifically is a slogan with a US background, yes, but European countries do have racism, sexism and trans-rights issues, and there is really no point in pretending otherwise. EDIT: that's not to say that there aren't overly strong US influences in some topics, just that "oh that's a US-only thing" does not apply here.

stefantalpalaru 6y ago

> we have no history of slavery https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Lithuania https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Lithuania

watwut 6y ago

Ugh, slavs were quite racist against Jews in particular. Animosity against gypsies is clesr too, but treatment of Jews stands out in general. And currently, general opinions of many people in region are pretty racist ... it just does not come up until yoi discuss race. Also, I would really like to kmow where slavic you are that there ia no sexism against women in tech or girls. Amd i dont know slavic programmer ashamed of that, the job is pretty well paid.