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Anything perceived as negative towards the current US administration has been getting flagged on HN recently. Maybe bots? It's some kind of obvious campaign.

huijzer 2y ago
Yes it's indeed an obvious campaign. Against politics in general. From the guidelines: > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
- freehorse 2y ago
  I would claim that these articles describe "some interesting new phenomenon" that is very relevant to a lot of us. I have colleagues right now cancelling their conference trips to the US either because under new rules they most probably cannot get a visa, or because they do not think it is worth the risk. I am pretty sure they are not the only ones in this kind of situation, and I am pretty sure that this kind of situation is quite relevant to the international audience of HN.
  - AlecSchueler 2y ago
    Similarly with the DOGE accessing federal servers there would have been no other community I trusted to understand the implications of physical access, the laws surrounding state data storage etc. "These discussions shouldn't be happening here" but where should they be happening? What other community has experience with Move fast and break stuff?
- Teever 2y ago
  If politics is off-top why are some of the most popular and frequent topics things like: The CHIPS and Science Act, The SLS rocket, California Zoning Laws, Drug policy in the bay area, The Digital Markets Act in the EU? It seems to me that 'politics' is just used as a euphemism for 'taboo' and there are many unspoken taboos about what is talked and not talked about here.
Reubachi 2y ago
YEs, as another commenter pointed out. It IS a targetted campaign.....directly in line with the posted site rules. Political posts which devolve into flame wars are not welcome here. Wether or not it will devolve into a flame war is not even a question. Dang has avery difficult job, let's use our brains before accusing him of...following the clearly stated rules.
- consteval 2y ago
  While it's true that these posts are political, our political climate is in a unique situation. You can no longer avoid politics, regardless of how much you hide. Even we, who are fairly wealthy techies, can no longer turn a blind eye. Yes, it sucks that even the most mundane aspects of our lives are being fraught with political warfare. The current administration appears to have a desire to burn the world down. I mean, look around you. Can we talk about EVs without being political? What about LLMs? What about the American tech industry? We used to be able to. It's no longer possible.
  - acdha 2y ago
    I would be overjoyed to go back to thinking about politics as much as I did in the 90s where you could go for ages with no negative changes in your life.
somenameforme 2y ago
I enjoy discussing/debating politics, but tend to flag things that are framed in a fashion designed to elicit rage-bait rather than discussion, which very much includes this story. In particular I think the immigration question is really quite interesting to debate and discuss (from both sides even!), but this article and consequently this thread is predictably just people kind of spaz raging with minimal concern for facts, data, or broader questions. Low quality topics invariably turn stuff into /r/politics where hyperbole, emotionalism, and broad level misinformation replace any sort of meaningful discourse. Like if you think about this issue for a minute, what exactly is it that you think should be done differently? People being detained and deporting for violating their visa is not new, but it's typically not covered in the media - it happens thousands times a day around the world everywhere. In fact this issue all started when Canada refused to allow entry to her because they suspected she wanted to illegally work, which led to her detainment and investigation in the US once Canada refused to accept her! And if one is upset about the fact that she was cuffed then you're implicitly claiming officers should be able to treat people differently based upon their appearance or sex - oh boy the sexism/racism ragebait would be incoming in a heartbeat. So what is the issue that's even to be discussed?

huijzer 2y ago

Yes it's indeed an obvious campaign. Against politics in general. From the guidelines: > Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, or celebrities, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

freehorse 2y ago
I would claim that these articles describe "some interesting new phenomenon" that is very relevant to a lot of us. I have colleagues right now cancelling their conference trips to the US either because under new rules they most probably cannot get a visa, or because they do not think it is worth the risk. I am pretty sure they are not the only ones in this kind of situation, and I am pretty sure that this kind of situation is quite relevant to the international audience of HN.
- AlecSchueler 2y ago
  Similarly with the DOGE accessing federal servers there would have been no other community I trusted to understand the implications of physical access, the laws surrounding state data storage etc. "These discussions shouldn't be happening here" but where should they be happening? What other community has experience with Move fast and break stuff?
Teever 2y ago
If politics is off-top why are some of the most popular and frequent topics things like: The CHIPS and Science Act, The SLS rocket, California Zoning Laws, Drug policy in the bay area, The Digital Markets Act in the EU? It seems to me that 'politics' is just used as a euphemism for 'taboo' and there are many unspoken taboos about what is talked and not talked about here.

Reubachi 2y ago

YEs, as another commenter pointed out. It IS a targetted campaign.....directly in line with the posted site rules. Political posts which devolve into flame wars are not welcome here. Wether or not it will devolve into a flame war is not even a question. Dang has avery difficult job, let's use our brains before accusing him of...following the clearly stated rules.

consteval 2y ago
While it's true that these posts are political, our political climate is in a unique situation. You can no longer avoid politics, regardless of how much you hide. Even we, who are fairly wealthy techies, can no longer turn a blind eye. Yes, it sucks that even the most mundane aspects of our lives are being fraught with political warfare. The current administration appears to have a desire to burn the world down. I mean, look around you. Can we talk about EVs without being political? What about LLMs? What about the American tech industry? We used to be able to. It's no longer possible.
- acdha 2y ago
  I would be overjoyed to go back to thinking about politics as much as I did in the 90s where you could go for ages with no negative changes in your life.

somenameforme 2y ago

I enjoy discussing/debating politics, but tend to flag things that are framed in a fashion designed to elicit rage-bait rather than discussion, which very much includes this story. In particular I think the immigration question is really quite interesting to debate and discuss (from both sides even!), but this article and consequently this thread is predictably just people kind of spaz raging with minimal concern for facts, data, or broader questions. Low quality topics invariably turn stuff into /r/politics where hyperbole, emotionalism, and broad level misinformation replace any sort of meaningful discourse. Like if you think about this issue for a minute, what exactly is it that you think should be done differently? People being detained and deporting for violating their visa is not new, but it's typically not covered in the media - it happens thousands times a day around the world everywhere. In fact this issue all started when Canada refused to allow entry to her because they suspected she wanted to illegally work, which led to her detainment and investigation in the US once Canada refused to accept her! And if one is upset about the fact that she was cuffed then you're implicitly claiming officers should be able to treat people differently based upon their appearance or sex - oh boy the sexism/racism ragebait would be incoming in a heartbeat. So what is the issue that's even to be discussed?