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Wondering when did political discourse become so prevalent in hacker news? I have now become accustomed to it being normal, but I remember the hacker news of 10

by mannanj 2mo ago

Wondering when did political discourse become so prevalent in hacker news? I have now become accustomed to it being normal, but I remember the hacker news of 10 years was not like this. Why has this become so normal? I miss the days where this was focused on technology and, well, hacking. Can we stop engaging this political commentary please.

GenericDev 2mo ago
[dead]
Philpax 2mo ago
You may not want to engage with politics, but politics will engage with you.
- ThrowawayR2 2mo ago
  Your sort is always nagging and prodding at the public to engage with politics, failing to understand that it may motivate the public to vote against your causes. Let sleeping dogs lie.
phoghed 2mo ago
Maybe something external changed and not HN? Can’t quite put my finger on what has changed in the last decade…
BoxOfRain 2mo ago
The hacker community has always had a strong political element to it, what else is the GNU GPL but a statement of political intent? Anything which deals with the allocation of power and resources is political.
- ThrowawayR2 2mo ago
  The old hacker community leaned anti-authoritarian and libertarian, if anything. The modern, everything-is-political "hackers" would be horrified by them.
  - BoxOfRain 2mo ago
    I'm not being funny, but anti-authoritarianism and libertarianism are literally political stances. To be anti-authoritarian you need to understand what authoritarianism is, appreciate why it is undesirable to a hacker specifically, and to have a system of reasoning which allows you to articulate these sentiments. This is doing politics in the oldest and truest sense.
- mannanj 2mo ago
  I remember the old hacker news though having more "we built xyz" posts and less any "War, news, flee from death" type of things and even AI dystopian-themed things (regardless of AI not being out then, we had more focus on building products). edit: maybe politics isn't what I really want out of hacker news. I think what I mean is I want less non-building related posts.

by mannanj 2mo ago

GenericDev 2mo ago

[dead]

Philpax 2mo ago

You may not want to engage with politics, but politics will engage with you.

ThrowawayR2 2mo ago
Your sort is always nagging and prodding at the public to engage with politics, failing to understand that it may motivate the public to vote against your causes. Let sleeping dogs lie.

phoghed 2mo ago

Maybe something external changed and not HN? Can’t quite put my finger on what has changed in the last decade…

BoxOfRain 2mo ago

The hacker community has always had a strong political element to it, what else is the GNU GPL but a statement of political intent? Anything which deals with the allocation of power and resources is political.

ThrowawayR2 2mo ago
The old hacker community leaned anti-authoritarian and libertarian, if anything. The modern, everything-is-political "hackers" would be horrified by them.
- BoxOfRain 2mo ago
  I'm not being funny, but anti-authoritarianism and libertarianism are literally political stances. To be anti-authoritarian you need to understand what authoritarianism is, appreciate why it is undesirable to a hacker specifically, and to have a system of reasoning which allows you to articulate these sentiments. This is doing politics in the oldest and truest sense.
mannanj 2mo ago
I remember the old hacker news though having more "we built xyz" posts and less any "War, news, flee from death" type of things and even AI dystopian-themed things (regardless of AI not being out then, we had more focus on building products). edit: maybe politics isn't what I really want out of hacker news. I think what I mean is I want less non-building related posts.