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Its very rare that I disagree with you, but I think this would be one such. PP made a claim that data from Indian government is not trusted, and implied bad fai

by srean 5y ago

Its very rare that I disagree with you, but I think this would be one such. PP made a claim that data from Indian government is not trusted, and implied bad faith as if the rest of the world has a chip on their shoulder about India. I think it is legitimate to show why numbers quoted by this government (in particular, but its largely true in general) is distrusted. The examples that I quoted are publicly available and very overwhelmingly typical. I think a corollary of free speech is that the community should contest and call out misinformation.

dang 5y ago
You seem to be misunderstanding the guidelines against flamewar and political battle on HN. Your comment clearly broke them and you've done this many times before. This sort of thing is obviously flamewar: The same government and the ruling party on their claimed achievements -- how dare you question our rock solid reliable numbers. You must be a traitor, unpatriotic, anti-national, tukde-tukde-gang-urban-naxal-protest-jeevi, why dont you go to Pakistan. We need you not to do that here regardless of how wrong someone else is or you feel they are. Actually your entire comment was flamewar - using sarcasm to sharpen political points, ridiculing opponents, and so on. None of that is ok, and being right (or feeling that you are right) does not entitle you to do it. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- srean 5y ago
  Dan I respectfully disagree. It may appear to be sarcasm, I wish it was, it is however entirely and quite dryly literal, multiple statements by cabinet ministers, members of the parliament, official party spokesmen would adequately demonstrate that. The purpose of adding a link to a Google query was to address this specific misapprehension and criticism. Those are literally the official responses by the representatives of the government. It only goes on to show how bad the situation is that lifting statements from the official party line gets interpreted as bad faith sarcasm. To give an example, if I write Early Indian scientist unsullied by western corruption could transplant face of an elephant on a human being. -- Indian Prime Minister. That may appear to be sarcasm, but that's the PMs publicly aired belief. Similarly, wallowing in cow dung and drinking cow urine can prevent/cure Covid is a publicly aired belief of many members of the Indian parliament coming from the ruling party. Problems are exacerbated by the fact that they now have megaphone and people close to their agenda defend them on forums using the idea than any disagreement is sourced from antinationalism, Hindu phobia, proximity to Islam or communism or Pakistan as an argument. I don't think 'both sides were at fault' does justice.

by srean 5y ago

dang 5y ago

You seem to be misunderstanding the guidelines against flamewar and political battle on HN. Your comment clearly broke them and you've done this many times before. This sort of thing is obviously flamewar: The same government and the ruling party on their claimed achievements -- how dare you question our rock solid reliable numbers. You must be a traitor, unpatriotic, anti-national, tukde-tukde-gang-urban-naxal-protest-jeevi, why dont you go to Pakistan. We need you not to do that here regardless of how wrong someone else is or you feel they are. Actually your entire comment was flamewar - using sarcasm to sharpen political points, ridiculing opponents, and so on. None of that is ok, and being right (or feeling that you are right) does not entitle you to do it. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

srean 5y ago
Dan I respectfully disagree. It may appear to be sarcasm, I wish it was, it is however entirely and quite dryly literal, multiple statements by cabinet ministers, members of the parliament, official party spokesmen would adequately demonstrate that. The purpose of adding a link to a Google query was to address this specific misapprehension and criticism. Those are literally the official responses by the representatives of the government. It only goes on to show how bad the situation is that lifting statements from the official party line gets interpreted as bad faith sarcasm. To give an example, if I write Early Indian scientist unsullied by western corruption could transplant face of an elephant on a human being. -- Indian Prime Minister. That may appear to be sarcasm, but that's the PMs publicly aired belief. Similarly, wallowing in cow dung and drinking cow urine can prevent/cure Covid is a publicly aired belief of many members of the Indian parliament coming from the ruling party. Problems are exacerbated by the fact that they now have megaphone and people close to their agenda defend them on forums using the idea than any disagreement is sourced from antinationalism, Hindu phobia, proximity to Islam or communism or Pakistan as an argument. I don't think 'both sides were at fault' does justice.