3 ms·

HN has always been a fairly left leaning site, no?

• owebmaster 1y ago
  Only if your POV is from the far right
• acdha 1y ago
  This is the fallacy of trying to reduce everything to a single left-right dimension. HN has always attracted pro-business people as you’d expect for a forum funded by a venture capital firm, but that intersects with other policies in different combinations. You have a lot of libertarians who might oppose government regulation in various ways but are often staunchly opposed to right-wing abuse of power to pursue political goals or reduce competition. Even business-friendly Europeans or Canadians often see the American healthcare system as bad since it costs more, distorts markets, and makes startups harder to launch. Climate change is another split since the idea that it’s exaggerated or that mitigations would cause more economic damage than ignoring it are both false so you get a denial position which are outright lies funded by the fossil fuel industry but also more sober positions trying market-friendly approaches to minimize the economic impact of moving away from fossil fuels, and positions on that intersect based on other national traits (e.g. even politically conservative people from countries which don’t produce much oil or have a massive traditional auto industry are far more likely to recognize the self-reliance aspects of renewable power as compatible with their own positions). The climate tech industry is full of startups from people who think decarbonization is a huge opportunity and many of them would be considered right-aligned on business issues but left to the extent that you view accepting the scientific consensus on climate change as a left-wing position.