4 ms·

Tell HN: Please stop posting political content

14 points by phyzix5761 4mo ago

Please stop posting political content on HN. I come here to get away from this stuff.

atmanactive 4mo ago
Couldn't agree more.
minimaxir 4mo ago
Politics and tech are more intertwined than ever, as the GPT 5.6 case demonstrates. You can't avoid it.
- phyzix5761 4mo ago
  I understand that but we're getting a lot of non-tech related political posts lately.
  - bediger4000 4mo ago
    There's something to be said for keeping tech oligarchs out of politics as well, no?
    - rolph 4mo ago
      i think keeping tech out of politics may be easier than keeping politics out of tech.
    - gjvc 4mo ago
      don't end sentences with "no?"
      - bediger4000 4mo ago
        Not only did you fail to capitalize the first word of your sentence, you ended it with "no?". You, sir, are the charlatan in this scenario. Good day.
  - ThrowawayR2 4mo ago
    You have the ability to flag submissions that are off-topic and downvote postings that are off-topic as defined by the HN guidelines linked at the bottom of the page. Use them (in a non-partisan, fair way) to help shape HN into the HN you want to see.
- vlian2088 4mo ago
  I want you to imagine how nauseating the Internet would've been to you if everywhere you went you encountered evangelical Christians preaching. "God and ... are more intertwined than ever, as the ... case demonstrates," blah blah blah. or, alternatively, imagine if Indians (18% of the world's population) were as passionate about politics as Americans (4%) are, and you had to endure constant shit slinging between rabid supporters and opponents of all the innumerable political factions of the world's largest democracy. that's how the rest of us feels about the current thing being shoved in our faces by "everything is political" activists everywhere we go.
  - bigyabai 4mo ago
    Neither of those metaphors line up, really. America's outsized impact on the global economy, security and technology landscape is not proportional to it's population. The relationship between political endeavors and technology are purely secular and material, we wouldn't have things like EUVL or SAR without DARPA paving the way for political objectives. Much like religion or the Indian Prime Minister, you don't have to discuss the American hegemony if you don't want to. But it does exist, and the burden of proof falls on you to explain how these things aren't important topics.
jleyank 4mo ago
If HN is business of tech as well as tech of tech, politics might be too intertwined to ignore. Particularly if deployment and government oversight is involved. If you can’t get to market or if oversight makes it impossible to operate than your good idea is noise.
stevenalowe 4mo ago
I come here to read what people I respect are saying about relevant political items - are we watching a 250-year-old republic die from 1000 premeditated cuts, or just a temporary trainwreck of incompetence? Or both? How much direct and collateral damage can the Republic withstand? Will the "military-industrial complex" end up controlling civilian access to AI models? Seems like that just started. It is a 1st Amendment violation? Probably... But knowledge is power so maybe not. If only politicians would stay out of tech business, and tech oligarchs would stay out of politics, and technology would stop changing the world... At an abstract level, we are watching a very slow rules-based system attempt to defend and repair itself from internal corruption and external threats.
deleted 4mo ago
[deleted]
ggm 4mo ago
Tricky issue. Have some sympathy, know I post too much politicised content. Not convinced it's either healthy or possible to exclude it. Do accept its unhealthy and entirely too possible to get bound into nihilistic doom scrolling. Tech bros own a lot of the capital investment surface in our space. Do we ignore the dark side?
toomuchtodo 4mo ago
Hide button is right there on each post, it is a choice to not press it for posts one is not interested in.
Danox 4mo ago
When Tech companies participate in politics, how can you ignore it and look the other way?
jauntywundrkind 4mo ago
If you have extremely sensitive needs like this it would be super easy for you to use an agent or something that can help shield your eyes. It's super easy these days for you to get what you want, without having to impose a limited constrainted tiny world view on other people. You can just get what you want! It's easy.
tim-tday 4mo ago
So many topics important to people here are becoming politicized. I wonder how we can avoid it? Do we regulate powerful ai models? Is science under threat? (Through defunding, politicization of specific areas of study etc) Do we build more data centers? Does a war in the Middle East constrain supply chain and double the price of some commodities we all care about? (For that matter is building data centers doubling the cost of some other things we all care about) These are some things with political ramifications. We care about them and the news is relevant to us. But if the political news is getting to you, I do empathize. I’ve had to go on total news blackouts a few times and have severely moderated my behavior in response.
- sublinear 4mo ago
  None of those concerns are new. You could have said all of that decades ago and been rightfully seen as a lunatic back then too. Technology is always some component of those topics, but it's a very loose relationship. Tools are not the problem.
general1465 4mo ago
It would be like in Russia, they also did not care about politics. But when politics started caring about them, when they started being sent to frontlines, then maybe they figured out that it was a mistake to avoid being involved in politics.

14 points by phyzix5761 4mo ago

Please stop posting political content on HN. I come here to get away from this stuff.

atmanactive 4mo ago

Couldn't agree more.

minimaxir 4mo ago

Politics and tech are more intertwined than ever, as the GPT 5.6 case demonstrates. You can't avoid it.

phyzix5761 4mo ago
I understand that but we're getting a lot of non-tech related political posts lately.
- bediger4000 4mo ago
  There's something to be said for keeping tech oligarchs out of politics as well, no?
  - rolph 4mo ago
    i think keeping tech out of politics may be easier than keeping politics out of tech.
  - gjvc 4mo ago
    don't end sentences with "no?"
    - bediger4000 4mo ago
      Not only did you fail to capitalize the first word of your sentence, you ended it with "no?". You, sir, are the charlatan in this scenario. Good day.
- ThrowawayR2 4mo ago
  You have the ability to flag submissions that are off-topic and downvote postings that are off-topic as defined by the HN guidelines linked at the bottom of the page. Use them (in a non-partisan, fair way) to help shape HN into the HN you want to see.
vlian2088 4mo ago
I want you to imagine how nauseating the Internet would've been to you if everywhere you went you encountered evangelical Christians preaching. "God and ... are more intertwined than ever, as the ... case demonstrates," blah blah blah. or, alternatively, imagine if Indians (18% of the world's population) were as passionate about politics as Americans (4%) are, and you had to endure constant shit slinging between rabid supporters and opponents of all the innumerable political factions of the world's largest democracy. that's how the rest of us feels about the current thing being shoved in our faces by "everything is political" activists everywhere we go.
- bigyabai 4mo ago
  Neither of those metaphors line up, really. America's outsized impact on the global economy, security and technology landscape is not proportional to it's population. The relationship between political endeavors and technology are purely secular and material, we wouldn't have things like EUVL or SAR without DARPA paving the way for political objectives. Much like religion or the Indian Prime Minister, you don't have to discuss the American hegemony if you don't want to. But it does exist, and the burden of proof falls on you to explain how these things aren't important topics.

jleyank 4mo ago

If HN is business of tech as well as tech of tech, politics might be too intertwined to ignore. Particularly if deployment and government oversight is involved. If you can’t get to market or if oversight makes it impossible to operate than your good idea is noise.

stevenalowe 4mo ago

I come here to read what people I respect are saying about relevant political items - are we watching a 250-year-old republic die from 1000 premeditated cuts, or just a temporary trainwreck of incompetence? Or both? How much direct and collateral damage can the Republic withstand? Will the "military-industrial complex" end up controlling civilian access to AI models? Seems like that just started. It is a 1st Amendment violation? Probably... But knowledge is power so maybe not. If only politicians would stay out of tech business, and tech oligarchs would stay out of politics, and technology would stop changing the world... At an abstract level, we are watching a very slow rules-based system attempt to defend and repair itself from internal corruption and external threats.

deleted 4mo ago

[deleted]

ggm 4mo ago

Tricky issue. Have some sympathy, know I post too much politicised content. Not convinced it's either healthy or possible to exclude it. Do accept its unhealthy and entirely too possible to get bound into nihilistic doom scrolling. Tech bros own a lot of the capital investment surface in our space. Do we ignore the dark side?

toomuchtodo 4mo ago

Hide button is right there on each post, it is a choice to not press it for posts one is not interested in.

Danox 4mo ago

When Tech companies participate in politics, how can you ignore it and look the other way?

jauntywundrkind 4mo ago

If you have extremely sensitive needs like this it would be super easy for you to use an agent or something that can help shield your eyes. It's super easy these days for you to get what you want, without having to impose a limited constrainted tiny world view on other people. You can just get what you want! It's easy.

tim-tday 4mo ago

So many topics important to people here are becoming politicized. I wonder how we can avoid it? Do we regulate powerful ai models? Is science under threat? (Through defunding, politicization of specific areas of study etc) Do we build more data centers? Does a war in the Middle East constrain supply chain and double the price of some commodities we all care about? (For that matter is building data centers doubling the cost of some other things we all care about) These are some things with political ramifications. We care about them and the news is relevant to us. But if the political news is getting to you, I do empathize. I’ve had to go on total news blackouts a few times and have severely moderated my behavior in response.

sublinear 4mo ago
None of those concerns are new. You could have said all of that decades ago and been rightfully seen as a lunatic back then too. Technology is always some component of those topics, but it's a very loose relationship. Tools are not the problem.

general1465 4mo ago

It would be like in Russia, they also did not care about politics. But when politics started caring about them, when they started being sent to frontlines, then maybe they figured out that it was a mistake to avoid being involved in politics.