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This is a throw away. My main account is about 2 years younger than yours. How can you not see that the rhetoric here has declined drastically over the past ye

This is a throw away. My main account is about 2 years younger than yours. How can you not see that the rhetoric here has declined drastically over the past year? Do you disagree that there are significantly more political/non-technical stories reaching the front page? Even if you agree with the gist arguments being made, disregard your personal politics and beliefs in coming to an assessment.

sophacles 13y ago
Making a throwaway and arguing the points as vaguely and indirectly as you are with it - combined with your focus on derailing conversation with tangent about politeness or whatever is certainly not helping the situation. There have been a lot of "green" accounts arguing very incoherently based largely on appeal to emotion in the last several days - I agree it's frustrating and very distracting from the usually high level of discourse. However the topics are also something a bit new for this place - extremely relevant things about policy that affects the community a whole, wrapped up in national discussion and culture wars, so there is some adjustment required. Your actions of creating a throwaway to preserve karma or keep people from knowing your actual thoughts are contributing to the problem you are complaining about. How should I react to a brand new user account - actually a whole set of them (not that any others are you, not accusing you of that) spewing vitriol and vague stances, and engaging in seriously poor debate form? My initial and continued reaction is that they are some form of sockpuppetry.
- uwotm8920 13y ago
  Clearly the environment on HN has become such that longer time users feel the need to protect their identities in order to go against the circlejerk. That isn't evidence of a conspiracy. And where have I derailed the discussion? So anyway, let me ask you: Why is Hacker News the place for political discussion? Clearly the community is incapable of having high level discussions about it. So why do you think it's appropriate for HN? Because it conforms to your biases?

sophacles 13y ago

Making a throwaway and arguing the points as vaguely and indirectly as you are with it - combined with your focus on derailing conversation with tangent about politeness or whatever is certainly not helping the situation. There have been a lot of "green" accounts arguing very incoherently based largely on appeal to emotion in the last several days - I agree it's frustrating and very distracting from the usually high level of discourse. However the topics are also something a bit new for this place - extremely relevant things about policy that affects the community a whole, wrapped up in national discussion and culture wars, so there is some adjustment required. Your actions of creating a throwaway to preserve karma or keep people from knowing your actual thoughts are contributing to the problem you are complaining about. How should I react to a brand new user account - actually a whole set of them (not that any others are you, not accusing you of that) spewing vitriol and vague stances, and engaging in seriously poor debate form? My initial and continued reaction is that they are some form of sockpuppetry.

uwotm8920 13y ago
Clearly the environment on HN has become such that longer time users feel the need to protect their identities in order to go against the circlejerk. That isn't evidence of a conspiracy. And where have I derailed the discussion? So anyway, let me ask you: Why is Hacker News the place for political discussion? Clearly the community is incapable of having high level discussions about it. So why do you think it's appropriate for HN? Because it conforms to your biases?