4 ms·

Does hackernews take part in cheering a side in every other war too? Like the Azerbaijan Armenia war that happened last year or the Saudi Yemani war sometime a

Does hackernews take part in cheering a side in every other war too? Like the Azerbaijan Armenia war that happened last year or the Saudi Yemani war sometime ago? I'm really wondering why this one is different.

bitcharmer 5y ago
I just looked at your comment history. It's quite obvious what and who you represent so whataboutism and other discourse steering techniques are more than expected. Yes, Russian trolls are present even here; we just shouldn't feed them.
nosianu 5y ago
Scale and danger and consequences. Ukraine is a big country. Russia has nukes. It also has a huge territory, so anything significant happening in or to Russia has a high chance to be or to become important. Also, this could be a test case watched by China for a possible invasion of Taiwan, as has been mentioned. There also are a few more countries that Russia has thus far only targeted with rhetoric but could target for (re)annexation next, depending on their post mortem cost/benefit analysis of how it went in Ukraine once this is over. It also shows how little the rest of the world can do when a nuke-owning nation just starts a war unilaterally.
- mohanmcgeek 5y ago
  > A test case watched by China for a possible invasion of Taiwan I saw this as a headline from several news websites already. So are you sure you weren't influenced by that? Reality is that the Taiwan situation is very different from the Ukraine situation and China itself thinks of it that way. > Russia has nukes. India and Pakistan, TWO nuclear weapon weilding countries, had a brief air engagement a few years ago. Nothing on HN. No sides. No GitHub issues..
  - 323 5y ago
    What's going on now in Ukraine is not brief. You could call brief when Russia invaded the eastern parts of it in 2014. Putin 3 days ago warned that any Western "interference" would have "consequences you never experienced in your history". Is Poland/Germany sending anti-tank and anti-air missiles in Ukraine now an "interference"?
    - xyzzyz 5y ago
      > Is Poland/Germany sending anti-tank and anti-air missiles in Ukraine now an "interference"? I think it doesn’t count as interference, according to arcane rules of international law. For example, during Cold War, US and Soviets would routinely openly arm combatants in their proxy war, and it didn’t count as actual offensive actions. For comparison, many voices in US are calling for instituting a No-Fly Zone over Ukraine. What that phrase means is they want NATO to commit to shoot down all Russian planes over Ukraine. NATO shooting down Russian aircraft will obviously will be taken as act of war by Russians.
  - gpderetta 5y ago
    AFAIK, they have had multiple engagements. The fact that they managed not to glass each other gives me some hope for humanity.
- ask_b123 5y ago
  > Ukraine is a big country. Yemen is too. https://upload.vaa.red/2hjyom#565284ae60ef9dfd699d3810c0060038 https://upload.vaa.red/2hjyom#565284ae60ef9dfd699d3810c00600...
divan 5y ago
Because many people on HN have personal morality perhaps.
sinyug 5y ago
> I'm really wondering why this one is different. It is the missing white woman syndrome applied to geopolitical conflicts.[1] A war or terrorist attack affecting North American and European countries is more important and deserving of constant attention than similar things happening elsewhere in the world. [1] Missing white woman syndrome (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome)
- bitcharmer 5y ago
  You are wrong. It's about the escalation potential.
jacobolus 5y ago
The conflict between Azeris and Armenians causes a lot of tragic death and displacement on both sides with no sign of permanent resolution, but is not imminently threatening to cause a direct fight between two nuclear powers or spark off a Europe-wide war. If e.g. Russia occupies Ukraine and Ukrainian insurgents are supplied or based from Poland and Russians fire across the border, or if Russia/Turkey fire on each-other when a Russian warship tries to pass through the Bosporus, or if Russian warplanes get shot down over Lithuania on their way between Belarus and Kaliningrad, or if Russia responds to economic sanctions with large-scale cyber attacks against the UK or France, (or, or, or...) we could quickly end up in a situation with two great nuclear powers actively firing at each-other.
DyslexicAtheist 5y ago
if powerful countries / economies are attacked that have a very low appetite for any form of risk then the media will treat it differently. Also the sad thing is it's not about human casualties but how much wealth is lost. If everyone would have their wealth tied up in Azerbaijan then I bet a war there would be reported on very differently. I guess HN treats it also differently because of the real risk to nuclear escalation.

bitcharmer 5y ago

I just looked at your comment history. It's quite obvious what and who you represent so whataboutism and other discourse steering techniques are more than expected. Yes, Russian trolls are present even here; we just shouldn't feed them.

nosianu 5y ago

Scale and danger and consequences. Ukraine is a big country. Russia has nukes. It also has a huge territory, so anything significant happening in or to Russia has a high chance to be or to become important. Also, this could be a test case watched by China for a possible invasion of Taiwan, as has been mentioned. There also are a few more countries that Russia has thus far only targeted with rhetoric but could target for (re)annexation next, depending on their post mortem cost/benefit analysis of how it went in Ukraine once this is over. It also shows how little the rest of the world can do when a nuke-owning nation just starts a war unilaterally.

mohanmcgeek 5y ago
> A test case watched by China for a possible invasion of Taiwan I saw this as a headline from several news websites already. So are you sure you weren't influenced by that? Reality is that the Taiwan situation is very different from the Ukraine situation and China itself thinks of it that way. > Russia has nukes. India and Pakistan, TWO nuclear weapon weilding countries, had a brief air engagement a few years ago. Nothing on HN. No sides. No GitHub issues..
- 323 5y ago
  What's going on now in Ukraine is not brief. You could call brief when Russia invaded the eastern parts of it in 2014. Putin 3 days ago warned that any Western "interference" would have "consequences you never experienced in your history". Is Poland/Germany sending anti-tank and anti-air missiles in Ukraine now an "interference"?
  - xyzzyz 5y ago
    > Is Poland/Germany sending anti-tank and anti-air missiles in Ukraine now an "interference"? I think it doesn’t count as interference, according to arcane rules of international law. For example, during Cold War, US and Soviets would routinely openly arm combatants in their proxy war, and it didn’t count as actual offensive actions. For comparison, many voices in US are calling for instituting a No-Fly Zone over Ukraine. What that phrase means is they want NATO to commit to shoot down all Russian planes over Ukraine. NATO shooting down Russian aircraft will obviously will be taken as act of war by Russians.
- gpderetta 5y ago
  AFAIK, they have had multiple engagements. The fact that they managed not to glass each other gives me some hope for humanity.
ask_b123 5y ago
> Ukraine is a big country. Yemen is too. https://upload.vaa.red/2hjyom#565284ae60ef9dfd699d3810c0060038 https://upload.vaa.red/2hjyom#565284ae60ef9dfd699d3810c00600...

divan 5y ago

Because many people on HN have personal morality perhaps.

sinyug 5y ago

> I'm really wondering why this one is different. It is the missing white woman syndrome applied to geopolitical conflicts.[1] A war or terrorist attack affecting North American and European countries is more important and deserving of constant attention than similar things happening elsewhere in the world. [1] Missing white woman syndrome (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_white_woman_syndrome)

bitcharmer 5y ago
You are wrong. It's about the escalation potential.

jacobolus 5y ago

The conflict between Azeris and Armenians causes a lot of tragic death and displacement on both sides with no sign of permanent resolution, but is not imminently threatening to cause a direct fight between two nuclear powers or spark off a Europe-wide war. If e.g. Russia occupies Ukraine and Ukrainian insurgents are supplied or based from Poland and Russians fire across the border, or if Russia/Turkey fire on each-other when a Russian warship tries to pass through the Bosporus, or if Russian warplanes get shot down over Lithuania on their way between Belarus and Kaliningrad, or if Russia responds to economic sanctions with large-scale cyber attacks against the UK or France, (or, or, or...) we could quickly end up in a situation with two great nuclear powers actively firing at each-other.

DyslexicAtheist 5y ago

if powerful countries / economies are attacked that have a very low appetite for any form of risk then the media will treat it differently. Also the sad thing is it's not about human casualties but how much wealth is lost. If everyone would have their wealth tied up in Azerbaijan then I bet a war there would be reported on very differently. I guess HN treats it also differently because of the real risk to nuclear escalation.