6 ms·
This is the fourth time this article with a poor, inflammatory headline has been submitted within the last five months: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31
by seszett 4y ago
This is the fourth time this article with a poor, inflammatory headline has been submitted within the last five months:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31227925 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31227925
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31216770 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31216770
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31453449 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=31453449
I'm not familiar with The Spectator but other than the title, this article contains the text "A woman in Ontario was forced into euthanasia" linking to an article with the title "Woman with chemical sensitivities chose medically-assisted death".
That seems not only misleading to me, but pure lie.
- possiblydrunk 4y ago>That seems not only misleading to me, but pure lie. Did you bother to read the article about the woman, or just the headline? From the linked article: A 51-year-old Ontario woman with severe sensitivities to chemicals chose medically-assisted death after her desperate search for affordable housing free of cigarette smoke and chemical cleaners failed, advocates say. ... “The government sees me as expendable trash, a complainer, useless and a pain in the a*," 'Sophia' said in a video filmed on Feb. 14, eight days before her death, and shared with CTV News by one of her friends. She died after a frantic effort by friends, supporters and even her doctors to get her safe and affordable housing in Toronto. She also left behind letters showing a desperate two-year search for help, in which she begs local, provincial and federal officials for assistance in finding a home away from the smoke and chemicals wafting through her apartment.
- seszett 4y agoThis is rather off-topic but in my opinion, the government not providing affordable housing free of chemical cleaners in the second most expensive city of Canada is very different from the government forcing her to commit suicide. The government of Canada generally doesn't provide housing with such specific requirements, and very few governments around the world do. In her situation, almost anywhere in the world she would have had the choice between living on the street and living in a house that sometimes smells of cigarette from the neighbours. In some countries including Canada, Switzerland or Belgium, she also had the choice of euthanasia. > In one email to friends, Sophia suggested that her death was, in a way, a show of protest against the lack of response to her and her physicians’ pleas Doing something in a show of protest against the government is certainly not the same as being forced to do it by this very government.
- possiblydrunk 4y agoThe article mentions that: “We physicians find it UNCONSCIONABLE that no other solution is proposed to this situation other than medical assistance in dying,” they wrote.
- dang 4y ago"Please don't comment on whether someone read an article. "Did you even read the article? It mentions that" can be shortened to "The article mentions that."" https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- possiblydrunk 4y agoReprimanded by dang - another milestone achieved! I feel strangely honored and ashamed at the same time :)
- data_maan 4y agoWhat's wrong with multiple postings? It's an important topic, and the reactions here seem to be slow (HN much rather rages about the potential abuses stable diffusion might lead to or how Google is using it's monopoly to try to get a little more pocket money than about problems that are already here, today, and are raising huge social questions).
- willyt 4y agoI think it was edited by Boris Johnson at some point after he was fired from the Times for making up sources. So that gives you a clue about thier quality standards.
- willyt 4y agoHe has been publicly exposed twice as a liar once at the start of his career and once again recently when he was effectively 'fired' from being Prime Minister for telling lies about partying during covid lockdowns. He wrote a whole load of dubious 'opinion pieces'[0] for the Telegraph before he was editor of the Spectator that contained 'facts' about the EU that were patently untrue. Anyone looking at his credentials when giving him the job of editor of the Spectator would surely have been aware of this. Therefore we should doubt wether the information in it is reliable. The best way to think of The Spectator is probably just as a magazine containing mostly what would be called 'opinion pieces' on Conservative policy ideas. [0]In case I'm using terminology that is different in other countries: In British newspapers there are two types of article, normal journalism with verified information and 'opinion pieces' where a writer, typically a journalist or politician is invited to give their opinion on current events. example of Guardian opinion piece: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/22/keir-starmer-labour-voters-tories-election https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/sep/22/keir-s... example of Guardian factual article: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/22/my-heart-sank-with-news-of-draft-russians-flee-in-droves https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/sep/22/my-heart-sank-... example of Telegraph opinion piece: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/21/six-wasted-years-liz-truss-deliver-brexit-actually-works/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2022/09/21/six-wasted-years... example of Telegraph factual article: https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/22/liz-truss-latest-news-tax-cuts-energy-freeze-live/ https://www.telegraph.co.uk/politics/2022/09/22/liz-truss-la...
- Beltalowda 4y agoHaving read the article and several of the other articles it links to, I strongly disagree calling it a "pure lie". People are choosing euthanasia for, among other reasons, the lack of financial means. There are several of such stories in the article. The case of the woman with chemical sensitivities which you cite chose medically-assisted death mostly due to her inability to find suitable housing free from cigarette and pot smoke from neighbours, which seems like a financial means problem to me. Is it inflammatory and pointed? A bit, yes. But that's okay, and that's a very different thing than "pure lie".