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I have found myself lately to feel indifferent to many threads on HN that would otherwise have exicted me because of the insane world politics events which were

by mongol 2y ago

I have found myself lately to feel indifferent to many threads on HN that would otherwise have exicted me because of the insane world politics events which were occuring simulatenously but without mention. There is an intelligent crowd here, and important topics ought to be discussed, not just the latest hacker news.

lolinder 2y ago
I disagree. There are lots of interesting things happening in the world, and the HN crowd does a good job talking about them. Those topics—the ones where HN has high quality conversation—are why I come to HN. Since the inauguration the HN crowd has not done a good job talking about politics. Where we used to be able to have some of the best discussions and comments on political issues I've seen on the internet, the last month or two has consisted primarily of hot takes and aggression, and I can get my dose of that anywhere else, I don't need it here.
- cj 2y ago
  Flagging those comments is a small way everyone can help.
  - lolinder 2y ago
    Hard to do when there are more than three thousand of them here.
Karrot_Kream 2y ago
The crowd isn't some invariant. The people here and quality of their responses is a function of the kind of topics that get discussed here, the repetition these topics receive, and the grace others have in receiving those comments. You can't just neatly swap in the HN community and say "okay you used to discuss Elixr tooling now it's time to discuss US politics." What happens instead is, people start getting heated at each other and vitriol across the site increases. Folks who don't find that grace anymore exit the site and folks who are heated stay. This attracts other people who want to be heated. This creates a downward spiral across the community. This isn't HN specific, it's the same thing that happened to pretty much every other public internet community once they started featuring lots of discussion on polarizing politics. The entire reason HN used to be high quality open internet forum is because politics wasn't a huge part of its contents. But the site has been under quality pressure for some time now and ever since the start of Trump 2024 it's started going downhill faster than it was before. That's fine of course, if folks just want to battle out politics and shout at each other or cry out in anger they can go ahead. But it won't be the "intelligent crowd here" doing it. Those folks will go elsewhere. As an example, this thread is ridiculously large (2818 comments as of this writing.) There is no way for a reader to get much out of this without copious amounts of minimizing threads, scrolling randomly, or page-searching for terms. The only sense I can make of it is throwing the thread into Gemini and asking it to summarize it for me. The summary tells me nothing that my own thoughts and some social media comments I've read don't already tell me. So what has the "intelligent crowd here" really given us? I'm waiting for op-eds from the MSM and blog authors I follow to give me literally anything more rigorous than the slop in this thread.
- voidhorse 2y ago
  > There is no way for a reader to get much out of this without copious amounts of minimizing threads, scrolling randomly, or page-searching for terms... Or you could, you know, jump from parent to parent and actually read the threads that interest you. I wholly disagree with your broad assessment. I have seen plenty of substantive, interesting comments in threads like this. Of course there will be duds, but that's equally true in threads about the latest front end web framework. Intelligence and outrage are not mutually exclusive. Again, the world is not an apolitical place. If you do not represent and speak up for your own values, someone else will decide your fate for you. This forum, like all others is a chance to signal boost and stand for the values you care about. The moderators have also done a good job of keeping the volume of these threads reasonable. Sure, on the new page they are rampant, for good reason, but only one or two max make it to the top thirty on a given day.
  - Karrot_Kream 2y ago
    Agree to disagree. Speaking up for your own values has nothing to do with winning elections. For that, voters in R districts need to call their reps and tell them their mind. Internet comments don't win win votes.
mashygpig 2y ago
I think a lot of people in tech unintentionally blind themselves to reality by obsessing over technology, and then thinking that is all that matters. It’s a behavior that is incentivized because it helps those with power utilize the tech-blind’s skills for their bidding.
- voidhorse 2y ago
  spot on. I am continually shocked by the number of people I work with who will actively contribute to ends that are ultimately against their own best interests just because they are intrigued by the technical aspects of a problem
eric_cc 2y ago
[flagged]
- trendoid 2y ago
  How would you distinguish between what you csll TDS and sharing of opinions that are group of intelligent between collectively strongly agree on ...like the fact that Trump ran has run many scams throughout his life including Trump University. Like how can some piece of negative information can be collectively held by a crowd without it being tds?
  - eric_cc 2y ago
    [flagged]
- twixfel 2y ago
  We just witnessed the fall of the US led international order and the end of its leadership of the free world. It’s interesting.
  - eric_cc 2y ago
    Can you explain how that changed from February 27 to February 28? I don’t see it.
    - twixfel 2y ago
      I assure you your allies see it. What’s funny is what did the US give up its leadership of the free world for exactly? The price of eggs? It took the British Empire fighting two world wars to lose its place! The US is collapsing and the experiment has clearly failed.
    - mongol 2y ago
      It changed in the same way cheating on your wife changes the dynamic in a marriage. It ruins trust that may never be possible to restore.
- 2y ago

by mongol 2y ago

lolinder 2y ago

I disagree. There are lots of interesting things happening in the world, and the HN crowd does a good job talking about them. Those topics—the ones where HN has high quality conversation—are why I come to HN. Since the inauguration the HN crowd has not done a good job talking about politics. Where we used to be able to have some of the best discussions and comments on political issues I've seen on the internet, the last month or two has consisted primarily of hot takes and aggression, and I can get my dose of that anywhere else, I don't need it here.

cj 2y ago
Flagging those comments is a small way everyone can help.
- lolinder 2y ago
  Hard to do when there are more than three thousand of them here.

Karrot_Kream 2y ago

The crowd isn't some invariant. The people here and quality of their responses is a function of the kind of topics that get discussed here, the repetition these topics receive, and the grace others have in receiving those comments. You can't just neatly swap in the HN community and say "okay you used to discuss Elixr tooling now it's time to discuss US politics." What happens instead is, people start getting heated at each other and vitriol across the site increases. Folks who don't find that grace anymore exit the site and folks who are heated stay. This attracts other people who want to be heated. This creates a downward spiral across the community. This isn't HN specific, it's the same thing that happened to pretty much every other public internet community once they started featuring lots of discussion on polarizing politics. The entire reason HN used to be high quality open internet forum is because politics wasn't a huge part of its contents. But the site has been under quality pressure for some time now and ever since the start of Trump 2024 it's started going downhill faster than it was before. That's fine of course, if folks just want to battle out politics and shout at each other or cry out in anger they can go ahead. But it won't be the "intelligent crowd here" doing it. Those folks will go elsewhere. As an example, this thread is ridiculously large (2818 comments as of this writing.) There is no way for a reader to get much out of this without copious amounts of minimizing threads, scrolling randomly, or page-searching for terms. The only sense I can make of it is throwing the thread into Gemini and asking it to summarize it for me. The summary tells me nothing that my own thoughts and some social media comments I've read don't already tell me. So what has the "intelligent crowd here" really given us? I'm waiting for op-eds from the MSM and blog authors I follow to give me literally anything more rigorous than the slop in this thread.

voidhorse 2y ago
> There is no way for a reader to get much out of this without copious amounts of minimizing threads, scrolling randomly, or page-searching for terms... Or you could, you know, jump from parent to parent and actually read the threads that interest you. I wholly disagree with your broad assessment. I have seen plenty of substantive, interesting comments in threads like this. Of course there will be duds, but that's equally true in threads about the latest front end web framework. Intelligence and outrage are not mutually exclusive. Again, the world is not an apolitical place. If you do not represent and speak up for your own values, someone else will decide your fate for you. This forum, like all others is a chance to signal boost and stand for the values you care about. The moderators have also done a good job of keeping the volume of these threads reasonable. Sure, on the new page they are rampant, for good reason, but only one or two max make it to the top thirty on a given day.
- Karrot_Kream 2y ago
  Agree to disagree. Speaking up for your own values has nothing to do with winning elections. For that, voters in R districts need to call their reps and tell them their mind. Internet comments don't win win votes.

mashygpig 2y ago

I think a lot of people in tech unintentionally blind themselves to reality by obsessing over technology, and then thinking that is all that matters. It’s a behavior that is incentivized because it helps those with power utilize the tech-blind’s skills for their bidding.

voidhorse 2y ago
spot on. I am continually shocked by the number of people I work with who will actively contribute to ends that are ultimately against their own best interests just because they are intrigued by the technical aspects of a problem

eric_cc 2y ago

[flagged]

trendoid 2y ago
How would you distinguish between what you csll TDS and sharing of opinions that are group of intelligent between collectively strongly agree on ...like the fact that Trump ran has run many scams throughout his life including Trump University. Like how can some piece of negative information can be collectively held by a crowd without it being tds?
- eric_cc 2y ago
  [flagged]
twixfel 2y ago
We just witnessed the fall of the US led international order and the end of its leadership of the free world. It’s interesting.
- eric_cc 2y ago
  Can you explain how that changed from February 27 to February 28? I don’t see it.
  - twixfel 2y ago
    I assure you your allies see it. What’s funny is what did the US give up its leadership of the free world for exactly? The price of eggs? It took the British Empire fighting two world wars to lose its place! The US is collapsing and the experiment has clearly failed.
  - mongol 2y ago
    It changed in the same way cheating on your wife changes the dynamic in a marriage. It ruins trust that may never be possible to restore.
2y ago