>I wondered what happened to the HN hive mind over the years, has it become more deferential to the authoritarian state, more accepting of the erosion of essent

>I wondered what happened to the HN hive mind over the years, has it become more deferential to the authoritarian state, more accepting of the erosion of essential freedoms in exchange for ostensible safety, more dismissive of clever hacks? >But then I read a thread from 13 years ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=702247 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=702247 >While there's a noticeable positive sentiment, many of the skeptical comments of today could have been copied verbatim from July, 2009. The difference is that in 2009 and now a Democrat is in the White House, so those who are convinced that "their side" can't do anything wrong are more willing to accept the authoritarian state. Look at the Warrant Canary Wikipedia page. Would Jessamyn West—associated so closely with Metafilter, a site that basically self-destructed because its hivemind became so self-reinforcing as to immediately shun anyone at any variance with it in a way that would make a Maoist struggle session conductor proud[1]—have created her sign for libraries if George W. Bush had not been president at the time? I doubt it. [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32880651 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32880651