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https://archive.md/ayoEv https://archive.md/ayoEv I wonder what HN's view is on the recent nazi salute of Elon ? All the relevant threads seem to become flagge

https://archive.md/ayoEv https://archive.md/ayoEv I wonder what HN's view is on the recent nazi salute of Elon ? All the relevant threads seem to become flagged very quickly. I think it would be a very interesting discussion, especially here.

FloorEgg 2y ago
As a community member I wholeheartedly disagree. Hacker News is one of the few places I can go and not be inundated with the political pocket sand nonsense. In fact, I think this entire post is probably off topic. With respect, please get your politics out of here. From the community guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic
- 4gotunameagain 2y ago
  I see your point of view, but I would argue that many hackers would find interest in the fact that an idolised tech magnate made such an extreme gesture. In my (non American) point of view this transcends left vs right arguments, but this is exactly why I am curious what this community would have to say. It is an interesting topic, if only from an anthropological perspective.
  - meiraleal 2y ago
    it’s kinda obvious. The people that already like him would defend it and justify the act and the people that dislike him would do the opposite. I guess he might have lost a small % of people liking him here but I would not bet it to be much
    - bwb 2y ago
      It might be a dumb question, but if HN was alive in the 1930s, at what point did it start talking about things? Is there a point in the 1930s or 1940s when it needed to voice some concern? I don't think we are anywhere near that point. I am generally curious about the question, as I struggle with this answer as a person. I hate the constant troll/media cycles we are stuck in, but at what point should I be concerned?
      - Neonlicht 2y ago
        What's the point of being concerned? If the majority want their fascist leader they will have it. If you have money look into getting a passport. Quite a few Dutch Jews found their way to the Carribbean. Or join the resistance and end up like Sophie Scholl.
        zfg 2y ago
        > What's the point of being concerned? So you don't turn into Russia: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/how-has-state-owned-media-in-russia-shaped-public-opinion-on-ukraine https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/how-has-state-owned-media-in-russ... Authoritarian regimes rely on disengagement and nihilism to remain in power.
      - CamperBob2 2y ago
        It might be a dumb question, but if HN was alive in the 1930s, at what point did it start talking about things? Not a dumb question IMHO, but a hard one to answer. The closest thing to a 1930s-era HN might have been the classrooms and labs at places like Gottingen and Leipzig, where the 'hackers' of the day were watching the politicization of their profession nervously. At some point it would have been too late for our counterparts with Jewish ethnicity to ask whether Ferdinand Porsche gave a Nazi salute or whether Wernher von Braun was giving speeches at Goering's favorite beer hall. They were too busy struggling with questions like, "When do I have to leave, where can I afford to take my family, and who will take us in?", bearing in mind that even the United States imposed ethnic quotas on Jewish immigrants at the time. Those questions are the ones that crop up later, after polite society fails to pay enough attention to the earlier ones. The smart 'hackers' might have suspected what was coming, but it's always too soon to speak up, isn't it?
- zfg 2y ago
  > unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon Musk performing fascist salutes at a political rally is an interesting new phenomenon: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/trump-elon-musk-salute https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/trump-elo... Like it or not, this is what's happening to the tech industry. So much of the tech sector is now precisely about politics and power. You can't run away from it. You can't ignore it. And, if you're in the tech industry, you're responsible for it. It's always best to see things as they are.
sph 2y ago
Meaning no offense, it is quite naive to assume that the level of discussion about very controversial political topics on here will be any better than, say, on a random subreddit. Sure, memes and one liners do not do well on Hacker News, but on the other hand, most "hackers" believe they are smarter and with better opinions than anybody else, which is often just a severe case of Dunning-Kruger. And the population of this site post Reddit fiasco is no different than Reddit anyway; how many Eternal Septembers have we gone through? Your account has been created pre-COVID, so you must have witnessed that some topics should just be avoided for the sake of anybody's sanity, whether it's on HN or not. In general, up/down vote systems just create echo chambers, not interesting and nuanced discussions. I might be the stereotypical old man yelling at clouds, but I miss when this place was about startups, programming and Wozniak-tier hackers, not an Ars Technica with a Bay Area accent that attracts anybody calling themselves a "techie" to discuss the daily news.
tim333 2y ago
Pretty much any user can flag a thread and some did but there was much discussion. 300+ comments here for your entertainment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42772995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42772995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42773778 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42773778 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42774621 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42774621 I'm not sure it was that interesting though. This I found kind of interesting: Apparently his mum's parents were Hitler supporters and moved to South Africa from Canada as it was too liberal. Musk's dad talking about it: https://youtu.be/B6e1ES4MLD0?t=200 https://youtu.be/B6e1ES4MLD0?t=200
jaybrendansmith 2y ago
I find it interesting. I love SpaceX. I used to like Musk quite a bit. Now that he has shown us his true stripes, I find the man abhorrent. He is a disgrace and an embarrassment. He should probably be deported or jailed, he does not belong in a free and just country. I doubt very few of us would be tolerant of Nazis and Fascists, and indeed we should be completely intolerant of Musk.

FloorEgg 2y ago

As a community member I wholeheartedly disagree. Hacker News is one of the few places I can go and not be inundated with the political pocket sand nonsense. In fact, I think this entire post is probably off topic. With respect, please get your politics out of here. From the community guidelines: On-Topic: Anything that good hackers would find interesting. That includes more than hacking and startups. If you had to reduce it to a sentence, the answer might be: anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity. Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic

4gotunameagain 2y ago
I see your point of view, but I would argue that many hackers would find interest in the fact that an idolised tech magnate made such an extreme gesture. In my (non American) point of view this transcends left vs right arguments, but this is exactly why I am curious what this community would have to say. It is an interesting topic, if only from an anthropological perspective.
- meiraleal 2y ago
  it’s kinda obvious. The people that already like him would defend it and justify the act and the people that dislike him would do the opposite. I guess he might have lost a small % of people liking him here but I would not bet it to be much
  - bwb 2y ago
    It might be a dumb question, but if HN was alive in the 1930s, at what point did it start talking about things? Is there a point in the 1930s or 1940s when it needed to voice some concern? I don't think we are anywhere near that point. I am generally curious about the question, as I struggle with this answer as a person. I hate the constant troll/media cycles we are stuck in, but at what point should I be concerned?
    - Neonlicht 2y ago
      What's the point of being concerned? If the majority want their fascist leader they will have it. If you have money look into getting a passport. Quite a few Dutch Jews found their way to the Carribbean. Or join the resistance and end up like Sophie Scholl.
      - zfg 2y ago
        > What's the point of being concerned? So you don't turn into Russia: https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/how-has-state-owned-media-in-russia-shaped-public-opinion-on-ukraine https://www.kcl.ac.uk/news/how-has-state-owned-media-in-russ... Authoritarian regimes rely on disengagement and nihilism to remain in power.
    - CamperBob2 2y ago
      It might be a dumb question, but if HN was alive in the 1930s, at what point did it start talking about things? Not a dumb question IMHO, but a hard one to answer. The closest thing to a 1930s-era HN might have been the classrooms and labs at places like Gottingen and Leipzig, where the 'hackers' of the day were watching the politicization of their profession nervously. At some point it would have been too late for our counterparts with Jewish ethnicity to ask whether Ferdinand Porsche gave a Nazi salute or whether Wernher von Braun was giving speeches at Goering's favorite beer hall. They were too busy struggling with questions like, "When do I have to leave, where can I afford to take my family, and who will take us in?", bearing in mind that even the United States imposed ethnic quotas on Jewish immigrants at the time. Those questions are the ones that crop up later, after polite society fails to pay enough attention to the earlier ones. The smart 'hackers' might have suspected what was coming, but it's always too soon to speak up, isn't it?
zfg 2y ago
> unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon Musk performing fascist salutes at a political rally is an interesting new phenomenon: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/trump-elon-musk-salute https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2025/jan/20/trump-elo... Like it or not, this is what's happening to the tech industry. So much of the tech sector is now precisely about politics and power. You can't run away from it. You can't ignore it. And, if you're in the tech industry, you're responsible for it. It's always best to see things as they are.

sph 2y ago

Meaning no offense, it is quite naive to assume that the level of discussion about very controversial political topics on here will be any better than, say, on a random subreddit. Sure, memes and one liners do not do well on Hacker News, but on the other hand, most "hackers" believe they are smarter and with better opinions than anybody else, which is often just a severe case of Dunning-Kruger. And the population of this site post Reddit fiasco is no different than Reddit anyway; how many Eternal Septembers have we gone through? Your account has been created pre-COVID, so you must have witnessed that some topics should just be avoided for the sake of anybody's sanity, whether it's on HN or not. In general, up/down vote systems just create echo chambers, not interesting and nuanced discussions. I might be the stereotypical old man yelling at clouds, but I miss when this place was about startups, programming and Wozniak-tier hackers, not an Ars Technica with a Bay Area accent that attracts anybody calling themselves a "techie" to discuss the daily news.

tim333 2y ago

Pretty much any user can flag a thread and some did but there was much discussion. 300+ comments here for your entertainment https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42772995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42772995 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42773778 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42773778 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42774621 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42774621 I'm not sure it was that interesting though. This I found kind of interesting: Apparently his mum's parents were Hitler supporters and moved to South Africa from Canada as it was too liberal. Musk's dad talking about it: https://youtu.be/B6e1ES4MLD0?t=200 https://youtu.be/B6e1ES4MLD0?t=200

jaybrendansmith 2y ago

I find it interesting. I love SpaceX. I used to like Musk quite a bit. Now that he has shown us his true stripes, I find the man abhorrent. He is a disgrace and an embarrassment. He should probably be deported or jailed, he does not belong in a free and just country. I doubt very few of us would be tolerant of Nazis and Fascists, and indeed we should be completely intolerant of Musk.