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There is clearly an ongoing manipulation going on on HN and outgunning the moderation (if moderation itself is not compromised by a MAGA insider). Many perfectl

by aredox 1y ago

There is clearly an ongoing manipulation going on on HN and outgunning the moderation (if moderation itself is not compromised by a MAGA insider). Many perfectly factual, relevant stories about the Trump administration are flagged to oblivion; same with comments. My personal encounter with the situation: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45036597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45036597 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44939626 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44939626

lp0_on_fire 1y ago
Most of these sorts of submissions just lead to Reddit-tier shit posting and many are interested in HN _not_ becoming _yet another_ front in the political flame wars. There isn’t some secret cabal of MAGA types censoring you.
- triceratops 1y ago
  It's probably due to flagging for both reasons.
  - _mlbt 1y ago
    I can speak from personal experience, this site is not a bastion of MAGA beliefs.
- aredox 1y ago
  >many are interested in HN _not_ becoming _yet another_ front in the political flame wars. Thanks for deciding that without asking. Stories about the Therac-25 - badly using a computer to control a radiation machine - are fine and often end on the front page. It killed 6 people. Stories about DOGE - badly using computers, big data, AI to save "trillions" of USD - are apparently not fine. DOGE is killing tens of thousands of people, put Musk is close to Trump, so talking about it is "political" and therefore there is no interest in showing on the front page that DOGE's claims are wrong by several orders of magnitude. Stories about Theranos - badly using computers to automate lab diagnostics - used to be fine. We talked at length about how Elizabeth Holmes was hailed as a genius, then how fishy it seemed, then the whistleblowers came and blew the lid off the deception that was going on. Holmes was condemned and sent to detention. Will we be forbidden to talk about Theranos once she gets her pardon from Trump[0]? Because it would be "political"? Are we forbidden to talk about Trevor Milton - co-founder and CEO of bankrupt electric truckmaker Nikola Motors, pardoned in March - was a fraudster[1], when he will inevitably launch a new startup? Will any mention of it be flagged because "we don't want no political flame wars"? [0]https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/06/27/3106882/0/en/theranos-Calls-on-President-Trump-to-Pardon-Elizabeth-Holmes.html https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/06/27/310688... [1]https://www.axios.com/2025/03/31/trump-pardons-bitmex-crypto-fraud https://www.axios.com/2025/03/31/trump-pardons-bitmex-crypto...
  - lp0_on_fire 1y ago
    That’s exactly it. People are tired of every forum on the internet being turned into a soap box for whatever political cause-du-jour is in vogue that week. People are equally tired of the melodrama that comes with it (“are we forbidden to talk about xyz politically charged topics that have repeated ad nausuem for a decade”). Talk about it all you want. Don’t be surprised when people start rolling their eyes at you like we roll our eyes at the weird uncle who always ruins family gatherings by bringing up politics at the dinner table.
    - jaybrendansmith 1y ago
      I think the issue is both-sides-ism here. This article is about the Fed illegally losing it's political independence, something that could trigger terrible inflation and a recession. That's quite a bit different than Biden falling off his bicycle. I would like to humbly suggest that the US slip-sliding into fascism is something hackers should be concerned about, worthy of discussion and debate. Pushing it down the memory hole seems unworthy of this site.
      - lp0_on_fire 1y ago
        “Slip-sliding into fascism”? Please. This is the same tired melodramatic trope that’s played out every time anyone even remotely to the right wins an election in the United States. It should be no surprise that many people, myself included, aren’t interested in “discussion and debate” that amounts to “anyone who is disagrees with me is cartoonishly evil”.
        jaybrendansmith 1y ago
        You can try to normalize this as much as you want, it ain't gonna normalize. Ignoring the supreme court? Ignoring habius corpus and due process? Pissing on the constitution, when you swore an oath to defend it? WTF.
        aredox 1y ago
        See here for some melodrama: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615336 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615336 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42614018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42614018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38532483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38532483 "The beam of thine eye", heh. But you don't live in areas where masked armed people disappear people in vans while shouting "ICE", so I guess you don't notice - and as you blank out any discussion of it as "political", as long as it doesn't happen to you personally, you will keep refusing to admit anything is happening. Anything like that list: https://www.axios.com/2024/11/01/trumps-enemies-within-list https://www.axios.com/2024/11/01/trumps-enemies-within-list
- jacquesm 1y ago
  > There isn’t some secret cabal of MAGA types censoring you. There are enough MAGA adherents on HN with flagging privileges for this to be an actual problem. HN just does not aggressively police such brigading. It takes only five flags for an article to be pushed down far enough that it might as well not exist and less than 10 for it to be killed entirely.
_mlbt 1y ago
There were also many factual comments and stories that cast the Biden administration in a negative light that got similarly flagged and downvoted to oblivion. I think a lot of people don’t come here for politics and would like to filter some of the noise out.
- nathanaldensr 1y ago
  That's exactly right. Many of us are "silent flaggers" because the second we attempt to mention this, the rabid knee-jerk reactions from those stuck in the left vs. right dichotomy will destroy one's karma.
  - nh23423fefe 1y ago
    i want nothing political here. its never interesting at all. the deranged want to inject politics everywhere
    - CyberMacGyver 1y ago
      It’s funny your comment history says otherwise. In fact you engage defensively about these posts when they support your political view. Seems like you flag content that doesn’t align with your views 0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43837358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43837358 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43823018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43823018 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499550 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499550
      - nh23423fefe 1y ago
        wrong but ok
- jacquesm 1y ago
  The difference being that Biden wasn't actively trying to run the USA into the ground. Or worse.

by aredox 1y ago

lp0_on_fire 1y ago

Most of these sorts of submissions just lead to Reddit-tier shit posting and many are interested in HN _not_ becoming _yet another_ front in the political flame wars. There isn’t some secret cabal of MAGA types censoring you.

triceratops 1y ago
It's probably due to flagging for both reasons.
- _mlbt 1y ago
  I can speak from personal experience, this site is not a bastion of MAGA beliefs.
aredox 1y ago
>many are interested in HN _not_ becoming _yet another_ front in the political flame wars. Thanks for deciding that without asking. Stories about the Therac-25 - badly using a computer to control a radiation machine - are fine and often end on the front page. It killed 6 people. Stories about DOGE - badly using computers, big data, AI to save "trillions" of USD - are apparently not fine. DOGE is killing tens of thousands of people, put Musk is close to Trump, so talking about it is "political" and therefore there is no interest in showing on the front page that DOGE's claims are wrong by several orders of magnitude. Stories about Theranos - badly using computers to automate lab diagnostics - used to be fine. We talked at length about how Elizabeth Holmes was hailed as a genius, then how fishy it seemed, then the whistleblowers came and blew the lid off the deception that was going on. Holmes was condemned and sent to detention. Will we be forbidden to talk about Theranos once she gets her pardon from Trump[0]? Because it would be "political"? Are we forbidden to talk about Trevor Milton - co-founder and CEO of bankrupt electric truckmaker Nikola Motors, pardoned in March - was a fraudster[1], when he will inevitably launch a new startup? Will any mention of it be flagged because "we don't want no political flame wars"? [0]https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/06/27/3106882/0/en/theranos-Calls-on-President-Trump-to-Pardon-Elizabeth-Holmes.html https://www.globenewswire.com/news-release/2025/06/27/310688... [1]https://www.axios.com/2025/03/31/trump-pardons-bitmex-crypto-fraud https://www.axios.com/2025/03/31/trump-pardons-bitmex-crypto...
- lp0_on_fire 1y ago
  That’s exactly it. People are tired of every forum on the internet being turned into a soap box for whatever political cause-du-jour is in vogue that week. People are equally tired of the melodrama that comes with it (“are we forbidden to talk about xyz politically charged topics that have repeated ad nausuem for a decade”). Talk about it all you want. Don’t be surprised when people start rolling their eyes at you like we roll our eyes at the weird uncle who always ruins family gatherings by bringing up politics at the dinner table.
  - jaybrendansmith 1y ago
    I think the issue is both-sides-ism here. This article is about the Fed illegally losing it's political independence, something that could trigger terrible inflation and a recession. That's quite a bit different than Biden falling off his bicycle. I would like to humbly suggest that the US slip-sliding into fascism is something hackers should be concerned about, worthy of discussion and debate. Pushing it down the memory hole seems unworthy of this site.
    - lp0_on_fire 1y ago
      “Slip-sliding into fascism”? Please. This is the same tired melodramatic trope that’s played out every time anyone even remotely to the right wins an election in the United States. It should be no surprise that many people, myself included, aren’t interested in “discussion and debate” that amounts to “anyone who is disagrees with me is cartoonishly evil”.
      - jaybrendansmith 1y ago
        You can try to normalize this as much as you want, it ain't gonna normalize. Ignoring the supreme court? Ignoring habius corpus and due process? Pissing on the constitution, when you swore an oath to defend it? WTF.
      - aredox 1y ago
        See here for some melodrama: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615336 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42615336 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42614018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42614018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38532483 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38532483 "The beam of thine eye", heh. But you don't live in areas where masked armed people disappear people in vans while shouting "ICE", so I guess you don't notice - and as you blank out any discussion of it as "political", as long as it doesn't happen to you personally, you will keep refusing to admit anything is happening. Anything like that list: https://www.axios.com/2024/11/01/trumps-enemies-within-list https://www.axios.com/2024/11/01/trumps-enemies-within-list
jacquesm 1y ago
> There isn’t some secret cabal of MAGA types censoring you. There are enough MAGA adherents on HN with flagging privileges for this to be an actual problem. HN just does not aggressively police such brigading. It takes only five flags for an article to be pushed down far enough that it might as well not exist and less than 10 for it to be killed entirely.

_mlbt 1y ago

There were also many factual comments and stories that cast the Biden administration in a negative light that got similarly flagged and downvoted to oblivion. I think a lot of people don’t come here for politics and would like to filter some of the noise out.

nathanaldensr 1y ago
That's exactly right. Many of us are "silent flaggers" because the second we attempt to mention this, the rabid knee-jerk reactions from those stuck in the left vs. right dichotomy will destroy one's karma.
- nh23423fefe 1y ago
  i want nothing political here. its never interesting at all. the deranged want to inject politics everywhere
  - CyberMacGyver 1y ago
    It’s funny your comment history says otherwise. In fact you engage defensively about these posts when they support your political view. Seems like you flag content that doesn’t align with your views 0. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43837358 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43837358 1. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43823018 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43823018 2. https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499550 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=43499550
    - nh23423fefe 1y ago
      wrong but ok
jacquesm 1y ago
The difference being that Biden wasn't actively trying to run the USA into the ground. Or worse.