Oh good, I was worried that an ongoing tragedy wouldn’t turn into a predictable political discussion quickly enough. It’s important that we speculate wildly and inject our own politics into this right away. There are internet points on the line after all!
This whole thread shouldn’t be on HN in the first place, there’s no solid information, and the trolls are already sharpening their fangs.
Please, refrain from trolling/speculating on HN to keep it useful. There are dedicated websites and communities for political discussions and related stuff.
It is sad how people have no respect for others when they preach their political emotions all over the Internet.
Just a gentle reminder (until dang gets here) that HN usually lets sufficiently big political news pass even if it's likely to generate lots of heat and little light.
I've already erased several snarky, gloating replies because I would like to see discussion of this proceed in something like a civil manner.
And it's already the case on HN that political discussions are quickly flagged into oblivion, so I'm not sure how this current week will be any different.
I was pretty let down that HN did not do more to protect political discussions during the US election cycle and I really didn't see all that much vitriolic behavior in the first place. Even if there is bad behavior though, is that something that we need to be protected from at all times? Maybe it is better to let it happen, point it out when we see it, and then hopefully learn to discuss more civilly as a community in the future.
I complained recently that political discussions are too easily suppressed on HN, and dang's response was that they inevitably veer into flame wars, and that preemptively flagging political threads is necessary / ok. I hope this thread continues to disprove that, since HN is an important place for political discussion to be happening.
You're both right. There are such posts, yet HN is not a political site. The balance/tension there is delicate and important.
The problem with your comment upthread is that it was uncivil because it took the thread into political battle. We all know how difficult if not intractable that particular battle is, and how dreadfully easy to reduce everything to it. The pull of that black hole, strong as it may be, needs to be resisted if we're to have the civil, substantive discussion we're hoping for on HN.
Please assume good faith when commenting here. (We're going to add that to the site guidelines btw.)
HN is not a place for heated, partisan political arguments. Not now, not ever, no matter the topic.
True, this is a political topic. As such it would normally be killed, but occasionally exceptions are made in cases like this where an event is of unusual historical or cultural significance.
But commenters aren't suddenly given license to engage in boorish behaviour just because a political topic is given a rare green light.
Indeed the reverse should be the case; extra effort should be made to contribute respectfully and substantively in discussions over topics like this. Lest the mods deem that this community is incapable of discussing any political topic with intelligence, and that all political topics should be banned in future, no matter how significant.
Plenty of other places on the internet welcome heated, partisan political arguing. There's no need to do it here.
I agree. It appears as though shocking political news stories are going to be the norm in the short to mid term. As interesting as they are and as useful as it is to discuss things with a sensible crowd like HN, I fear that the focus will inevitably be pulled away from the main topic at hand. There are lots of other venues to discuss these issue if one so wishes.
Plenty of political discussions appear on HN. It's a complex question, which I wrote about some in an earlier thread today: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19720659. Strong political feelings lead people to rush to generalizations about HN, but you need to resist that pull if you want to assess the situation fairly.
Is there a reason for this to be on HN? I'm only seeing jokes in the thread and not even positive how a meaningful political discussion would make sense here. Every other forum has plenty of room for political discussion.
You expect people to do baseless speculation about politics here on HN or do you expect somebody with inside information of some crime to decide to speak, in public, just because you prompted?
This thread is actually a prime example of why we can't have politics on HN.
Even in an otherwise smart, rational and measured community, in this thread we're seeing appeals to emotion, partisan "outrage" and downvoted being used as a tool of disagreement.
There's plenty of opportunity to discuss pertinent facts without flamebait. Threads are most sensitive to their initial conditions. If the initial condition is a blanket inflammatory statement about $group, the resulting thread isn't likely to illuminate anything. Fortunately it's entirely unnecessary to comment that way, so we can have other kinds of discussion.
Admittedly this is all subject to interpretation and reasonable people interpret these things differently. I appreciate your not jumping to the accusation of bias that usually comes up in these cases. The way I look at it, HN's influence on politics is negligible but politics' influence on HN is existential, and our first responsibility is to protect the container here.
Honestly, I don´t know what this type of post is doing on HN. Very strong political bias and misinformation being spread in the comments, feels like I'm on Reddit.
This whole thread shouldn’t be on HN in the first place, there’s no solid information, and the trolls are already sharpening their fangs.
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