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Just a couple weeks ago I had a comment downvoted and flagged for saying what this confirms. The political bias in tech circles is unreal sometimes.

encryptluks2 4y ago
The political bias from either party is unreal most of the times. It isn't exclusive to the left or right.
- taolegal 4y ago
  Except every important cultural institution and practically every tech space is left-biased.
  - lilactown 4y ago
    Twitter's now owned by Elon, who is making friends with right wing reactionaries in public. Fox News is the most watched news channel on the continent. All tech companies at the very least are pro-capitalist, it's often a choice of whether they're outwardly more pro-market or more technocratic, which has nothing to do with political lefts and rights.
    - taolegal 4y ago
      > Fox News is the most watched news channel on the continent. They have high viewership in spite of the fact that liberals have complete dominance over so-called "official" news media & centers of cultural production, as well as universities. Conservatives don't control government or anything else in any meaningful sense. Just look at American govt over the course of the 20th & 21st century to see that progressives squarely won in terms of shaping the size, scope & spending of govt. > has nothing to do with political lefts and rights You're supposing a True Scotsman that "liberals" aren't true left or something, that's complete nonsense. You may as well be regretting that a horse isn't a unicorn. Tech companies are overwhelmingly biased towards liberals. Don't play dumb.
      - ModernMech 4y ago
        > Conservatives don't control government or anything else in any meaningful sense. 6/3 conservative Supreme Court and the House. That’s half of the federal government.
        Vecr 4y ago
        More like a just over a sixth, there's three branches, executive, legislature, and judicial. If you buy into the whole "media is the fourth branch" thing, I say that's actually a minority or a plurality.
        kevingadd 4y ago
        If you think "complete functional control over the supreme court for likely decades" is insignificant enough to make conservatives count as a minority you need to pay more attention to the powers and impact of the supreme court. They can effectively overrule any legislation if they wish and have proven a desire to do so.
        Vecr 4y ago
        They say they can do that (judicial review is kind of not in the constitution) but what California and New York are doing post New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen puts a bit of a question on that. Making much of New York City a "gun free zone" is not what "the right to keep and bear arms" sounds like to me.
        ModernMech 4y ago
        I’m counting executive branch, judicial branch, and congress as two because they each individually have their own mandated powers. The conservative Supreme Court just unilaterally gutted fundamental human rights for everyone in the country. That’s serious power that not even the President has. It’s a joke to pretend conservatives have no political power in the face of that. The third highest government official is the Speaker of the House, who will be a Republican in January, so it’s pretty hard to say Republicans have no power when they control the Speaker. It’s crazy how much power that is. But to call the media a branch of government and to assign “control” of media to Democrats is really a stretch. Pretty hard to make that case with Fox News around.
  - hk__2 4y ago
    > Except every important cultural institution and practically every tech space is left-biased. This is because progressism is associated with the left. The tech space lives on the edge of innovation, so of course it leans toward progressism.
    - encryptluks2 4y ago
      This is what I find fascinating. A majority of these companies are staffed by the best in technology who are particularly intelligent and vote more progressive. Then comes along some dumb conservative complaining that a majority of people working there don't want to hear some dumb conspiracy.
      - taolegal 4y ago
        > a majority of people so minorities should be abused?
        encryptluks2 4y ago
        I can't even begin to fathom how you are reaching that far. We are taking about skills here not race.
        taolegal 4y ago
        You're saying that when people are outnumbered they should be at the mercy of the majority. Even worse that you're apparently ableist saying that it's better if it's on the basis of skill rather than race.
        encryptluks2 4y ago
        You're saying that if people have no medical degree that they should be given jobs as surgeons because they are in a minority group of not having the skills necessary to perform surgeries? No where have you claimed or provided proof that conservatives are being discriminated against in hiring.
boc 4y ago
Nobody on the left cares about protecting Hunter Biden. IF he broke any laws, then he should be in jail. AFAIK, there's no current legal case against him. What you're seeing here is the "left" learning to not take everything the right screams about at face value. They watched Hillary get dragged through the mud with Benghazi over absolutely nothing of substance, including months of Congressional hearings. Thus this new "Hunter Biden Laptop" story smells like the same exact ratfucking playbook. Complaining that Twitter didn't amplify an unproven story isn't bias. It's successful pattern recognition.
- M4v3R 4y ago
  > Complaining that Twitter didn't amplify an unproven story isn't bias. What do you mean by “didn’t amplify”? They actively suppressed/banned the story (based on a policy that didn’t even apply in this case) instead of “not amplifying it”, these are two totally separate things.
- chrisbaker98 4y ago
  What was actually on Hunter Biden's laptop? Can someone give me a link to a succinct, non-partisan list of facts?
  - gilbetron 4y ago
    Unbiased, factual descriptions are really hard to come by. Here's an ok take on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/z3isaw/whats_up_with_hunters_biden_laptop/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/z3isaw/whats_... You'll have to do your own digging around to build up your own opinion if you want more info. From my digging, it still seems like pretty much nothing we didn't already know.
  - lazyeye 4y ago
    Joe Biden (AKA "The Big Guy") was taking a cut from Hunter Biden's ridiculous business dealings with foreign entities (otherwise known as "influence peddling"). With zero relevant business experience Hunter Biden was getting highly lucrative business deals with all kinds of shady people connected to foreign govts. Joe Biden denied any involvement with his son's business but there is evidence that he was involved from witnesses (including attending business meetings) and emails on the laptop to indicate he was involved but they were conscious of the need to publicly at least, keep his name out of it. It's the kind of thing for which, if it was Trump, we would have seen 24/7 media meltdown for years but because its a Biden well "media companies are privately owned and can do what they want".
M4v3R 4y ago
It’s because you used a radioactive term “affect elections”. I’m not from USA but I noticed that nowadays even the slightest suggestion that X (whatever X might be) influenced the outcome of an election will get you downvoted/flagged into oblivion. That is, if you’re talking about the 2020 election, suggesting that anything was wrong with the 2016 ones is perfectly fine for some reason.
Nimitz14 4y ago
There is absolutely nothing new here. Work on your reading comprehension.
acdha 4y ago
Here’s your comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33497772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33497772 Those are some very strong claims. What specifically in this thread supports them? For example, we know that Twitter received these requests from both campaigns, whereas deliberate collusion would only have been with one, and the most hyped up claims are a handful of tweets which contained non-consensual nudity, which doesn’t exactly seem like it would shift the election.
tomrod 4y ago
I'm surprised HN isn't flagging and downvoting the comments supporting the content, since it remains misinformation (if not downright disinformation). The comments discussing process (was this appropriate moderation?) are much more in line with my experience in the community.

encryptluks2 4y ago

The political bias from either party is unreal most of the times. It isn't exclusive to the left or right.

taolegal 4y ago
Except every important cultural institution and practically every tech space is left-biased.
- lilactown 4y ago
  Twitter's now owned by Elon, who is making friends with right wing reactionaries in public. Fox News is the most watched news channel on the continent. All tech companies at the very least are pro-capitalist, it's often a choice of whether they're outwardly more pro-market or more technocratic, which has nothing to do with political lefts and rights.
  - taolegal 4y ago
    > Fox News is the most watched news channel on the continent. They have high viewership in spite of the fact that liberals have complete dominance over so-called "official" news media & centers of cultural production, as well as universities. Conservatives don't control government or anything else in any meaningful sense. Just look at American govt over the course of the 20th & 21st century to see that progressives squarely won in terms of shaping the size, scope & spending of govt. > has nothing to do with political lefts and rights You're supposing a True Scotsman that "liberals" aren't true left or something, that's complete nonsense. You may as well be regretting that a horse isn't a unicorn. Tech companies are overwhelmingly biased towards liberals. Don't play dumb.
    - ModernMech 4y ago
      > Conservatives don't control government or anything else in any meaningful sense. 6/3 conservative Supreme Court and the House. That’s half of the federal government.
      - Vecr 4y ago
        More like a just over a sixth, there's three branches, executive, legislature, and judicial. If you buy into the whole "media is the fourth branch" thing, I say that's actually a minority or a plurality.
        kevingadd 4y ago
        If you think "complete functional control over the supreme court for likely decades" is insignificant enough to make conservatives count as a minority you need to pay more attention to the powers and impact of the supreme court. They can effectively overrule any legislation if they wish and have proven a desire to do so.
        Vecr 4y ago
        They say they can do that (judicial review is kind of not in the constitution) but what California and New York are doing post New York State Rifle & Pistol Association, Inc. v. Bruen puts a bit of a question on that. Making much of New York City a "gun free zone" is not what "the right to keep and bear arms" sounds like to me.
        ModernMech 4y ago
        I’m counting executive branch, judicial branch, and congress as two because they each individually have their own mandated powers. The conservative Supreme Court just unilaterally gutted fundamental human rights for everyone in the country. That’s serious power that not even the President has. It’s a joke to pretend conservatives have no political power in the face of that. The third highest government official is the Speaker of the House, who will be a Republican in January, so it’s pretty hard to say Republicans have no power when they control the Speaker. It’s crazy how much power that is. But to call the media a branch of government and to assign “control” of media to Democrats is really a stretch. Pretty hard to make that case with Fox News around.
- hk__2 4y ago
  > Except every important cultural institution and practically every tech space is left-biased. This is because progressism is associated with the left. The tech space lives on the edge of innovation, so of course it leans toward progressism.
  - encryptluks2 4y ago
    This is what I find fascinating. A majority of these companies are staffed by the best in technology who are particularly intelligent and vote more progressive. Then comes along some dumb conservative complaining that a majority of people working there don't want to hear some dumb conspiracy.
    - taolegal 4y ago
      > a majority of people so minorities should be abused?
      - encryptluks2 4y ago
        I can't even begin to fathom how you are reaching that far. We are taking about skills here not race.
        taolegal 4y ago
        You're saying that when people are outnumbered they should be at the mercy of the majority. Even worse that you're apparently ableist saying that it's better if it's on the basis of skill rather than race.
        encryptluks2 4y ago
        You're saying that if people have no medical degree that they should be given jobs as surgeons because they are in a minority group of not having the skills necessary to perform surgeries? No where have you claimed or provided proof that conservatives are being discriminated against in hiring.

boc 4y ago

Nobody on the left cares about protecting Hunter Biden. IF he broke any laws, then he should be in jail. AFAIK, there's no current legal case against him. What you're seeing here is the "left" learning to not take everything the right screams about at face value. They watched Hillary get dragged through the mud with Benghazi over absolutely nothing of substance, including months of Congressional hearings. Thus this new "Hunter Biden Laptop" story smells like the same exact ratfucking playbook. Complaining that Twitter didn't amplify an unproven story isn't bias. It's successful pattern recognition.

M4v3R 4y ago
> Complaining that Twitter didn't amplify an unproven story isn't bias. What do you mean by “didn’t amplify”? They actively suppressed/banned the story (based on a policy that didn’t even apply in this case) instead of “not amplifying it”, these are two totally separate things.
chrisbaker98 4y ago
What was actually on Hunter Biden's laptop? Can someone give me a link to a succinct, non-partisan list of facts?
- gilbetron 4y ago
  Unbiased, factual descriptions are really hard to come by. Here's an ok take on it: https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/z3isaw/whats_up_with_hunters_biden_laptop/ https://www.reddit.com/r/OutOfTheLoop/comments/z3isaw/whats_... You'll have to do your own digging around to build up your own opinion if you want more info. From my digging, it still seems like pretty much nothing we didn't already know.
- lazyeye 4y ago
  Joe Biden (AKA "The Big Guy") was taking a cut from Hunter Biden's ridiculous business dealings with foreign entities (otherwise known as "influence peddling"). With zero relevant business experience Hunter Biden was getting highly lucrative business deals with all kinds of shady people connected to foreign govts. Joe Biden denied any involvement with his son's business but there is evidence that he was involved from witnesses (including attending business meetings) and emails on the laptop to indicate he was involved but they were conscious of the need to publicly at least, keep his name out of it. It's the kind of thing for which, if it was Trump, we would have seen 24/7 media meltdown for years but because its a Biden well "media companies are privately owned and can do what they want".

M4v3R 4y ago

It’s because you used a radioactive term “affect elections”. I’m not from USA but I noticed that nowadays even the slightest suggestion that X (whatever X might be) influenced the outcome of an election will get you downvoted/flagged into oblivion. That is, if you’re talking about the 2020 election, suggesting that anything was wrong with the 2016 ones is perfectly fine for some reason.

Nimitz14 4y ago

There is absolutely nothing new here. Work on your reading comprehension.

acdha 4y ago

Here’s your comment: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33497772 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=33497772 Those are some very strong claims. What specifically in this thread supports them? For example, we know that Twitter received these requests from both campaigns, whereas deliberate collusion would only have been with one, and the most hyped up claims are a handful of tweets which contained non-consensual nudity, which doesn’t exactly seem like it would shift the election.

tomrod 4y ago

I'm surprised HN isn't flagging and downvoting the comments supporting the content, since it remains misinformation (if not downright disinformation). The comments discussing process (was this appropriate moderation?) are much more in line with my experience in the community.