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It's a crying shame that given the choice, the voters picked the modern-day equivalent of Lysenkoism[1]. [1] Which due to the timing of its adoption and abando
by vkou 1y ago
It's a crying shame that given the choice, the voters picked the modern-day equivalent of Lysenkoism[1].
[1] Which due to the timing of its adoption and abandonment did avoid outright causing famines in the Soviet Union... And went on to kill tens of millions of people in China.
- ants_everywhere 1y agoOne of the many parallels of this administration with communism
- CamperBob2 1y agoNo kidding. Can you imagine how conservatives would have reacted if the banners going up around DC[1] had Obama's face on them? 1: https://bsky.app/profile/donmoyn.bsky.social/post/3lxfamzutks2j https://bsky.app/profile/donmoyn.bsky.social/post/3lxfamzutk...
- dralley 1y agoMAGA Maoism https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/04/08/maga-maoism-tariffs-trump/ https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2025/04/08/maga-maoi...
- morkalork 1y agoAnd this was written before the USA took a 10% stake in Intel, turning it into a Chinese style state-owned enterprise!
- CompoundEyes 1y agoNow they can demand that Intel investigate internal “waste fraud and abuse” since it’s partially owned by the government. It goes from “the government should run more like a business” to the government telling businesses “run more like the government running more like a business”
- martythemaniak 1y agoYeah, nothing Trump has done has been particular surprising, but the enthusiasm with which huge portions of America have welcomed or shrugged at his insa has been the real shocker.
- estearum 1y agoIMO there's a small (very) enthusiastic portion of America, then a much larger portion that simply didn't like inflation and would've voted any incumbent out of power. Very poor timing that has already caused generational damage, at least.
- etchalon 1y agoWe are not a smart country.
- estearum 1y agoEh, it's common knowledge that "the masses" are vulnerable to demagoguery. The elites who absolutely do know better hold far more blame –– many of them still well-regarded on this very forum!
- hyperliner 1y ago[dead]
- jfengel 1y agoInflation in November 2024 was 2.7%. That's higher than the Fed target, but hardly "throw out the incumbent at all costs". I know that "inflation" is what they told pollsters, but I have a hard time believing that. Maybe some of it; not all of it, or the biggest part of it. As to what it actually was... that's less clear to me. I'm sure it was a multiplicity of factors, some of which reflect poorly on us as Americans. (All of us.) I think we accept the "inflation" explanation because it's easier than confronting those.
- estearum 1y ago
- hyperliner 1y ago[dead]
- ajross 1y ago> It's a crying shame that given the choice, the voters picked the modern-day equivalent of Lysenkoism[1]. Those voters (who needless to say had never heard of Lysenko) were told by trusted, well-spoken, authoritative, legitimate seeming sources that this was a mainstream position and a very reasonable one. The people who needed to say it was bullshit were deliberately excluded. And yeah, that applies specifically to Fox News and Facebook, but also to Rogan and the manosphere, and to 4chan. And to HN, quite frankly. If you want to know why people turned away from science just go back and watch the discourse around late COVID or whatever. And note how it was utterly dominated by the loons in throwaway accounts. Some of us tried fighting back and ended up incessantly flagged and rate-limited, so we gave up. "Reasonable" HN posters fled the field in favor of bland tech discussion (or retreated in the face of "moderation"), and someone looking at the issue without context might assume that the modern Lysenkos must have had a point.
- protocolture 1y agoModern social media teaches you to either engage if the topic gives you happy brain feels, or disengage completely so it never shows up in your feed. The more you "fight" a cause, the more you promote it and the more you see it.
- ajross 1y agoFWIW HN doesn't have personalized feeds like that. We all see the same front page. But regardless: The loons loved it indeed, and it was all over the front page. Right here. Blaming that on the rest of us seems ridiculous, but sort of besides the point. I don't care about blame, I'm saying that whoever you want to blame, it is us, right here, on HN, not some abstract "voters". We made this problem. We told people that masks didn't work and vaccines were poison. If not you and I personally, people writing prose in proxy for us did. On balance, Hacker News stood solidly on the side of RFK2 and against the CDC in this particular war. It just did.
- krapp 1y agoI think you're overestimating how influential Hacker News is on the discourse of society at large. Many people here were (and still are) solidly anti-vaccine but in the grand scheme Hacker News was just one of innumerable maelstroms on the internet, and far from the biggest. More realistically, Hacker news is just full of people who aren't any more immune to propaganda than anyone else.
- voidfunc 1y agoThe inability for intelligent people to frame their policies and positions in ways very stupid simple people can understand is the biggest failing of the last 50+ years if not longer.
- mankyd 1y ago> in ways very stupid simple people can understand The problem is rarely the ability to understand. It is the ability (or desire) to listen that many lack.
- voidfunc 1y agoThese people have no trouble listening. They're deeply into people like Rogan, Trump, their pastor, RFK etc. and eat up their every word.
- SantalBlush 1y agoThey will listen to anyone who tells them what they like to hear. They will not listen to anyone who tells them what they don't like to hear. They shop around for truths they prefer like they're items at Costco.
- voidfunc 1y agoSomewhere along the line they had to develop preferences which indicates some level of listening.
- abracadaniel 1y agoPeople’s preferences tend very strongly toward whatever requires the least action on their part. If the problem is with someone else, then you never have to be part of the solution
- kelipso 1y ago
- Terr_ 1y ago> the modern-day equivalent of Lysenkoism Another communist parallel: MAGA is aimed in the general direction of a Great Leap Forward [0] to screw over the American economy and industry with incompetent autarky, and also a Cultural Revolution [1] for persecuting "woke elites" (subject-matter experts) leading to international brain-drain. I really hope the American people can put the brakes on that, because it took China decades to recover. [0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cultural_Revolution
- Woodi 1y agoSorry, but thats what USians choose and looks Trump was better alternative then Lady-do-nothing-California. And you literaly insult peoples that actually lived in Warsaw Pact, check your body count numbers.