There is a fair amount of casual broad-stroke stereotyping, armchair economics and calls to patriotism in this post and throughout the replies that I don't find very appealing. I have seen this type of post increasingly often and it's starting to worry me. Is this the type of community that HN attracts?
Reasonably close. If you're worried that there is astroturfing or some other kind of organized manipulation going on, I think it's unlikely. There's an easier explanation: HN is a highly international community. People post from many countries, naturally including many Eastern European countries in this thread. These peoples don't see things the same way, for deep and valid reasons, and the issues raised by the topic touch on matters of survival and tribe that have a lot of energy in them.
I often wonder how biased we are here. After all, HN is a rather "raw-looking" news aggregator without any of the addictive and suggestive bells & whistles that define the modern internet, and it is therefore reasonable to assume that those who read and post here (aka "us") also converse in ways unlike the population average.
You could also claim I'm saying we're basking in our own elitism to the degree that we're offended by stupidity like that. I'd admit to that feeling. Alas, even if it sounds arrogant, it fits my observation that "most people" would find nothing at all wrong with this sort of meaningless overchildish belittlement of scientific facts.
I mean, this applies to many of the discussions on HN too. I've noticed that there's so many people getting the facts around the topic completely wrong, and quite a few will push some simplistic narrative or long-standing grievances, instead of the relevant point which often is subtle and nuanced. I suppose that's just being human.
well put. it really is fascinating to see how common that is on HN, where I imagine most of the posters imagine themselves to be worldly and open-minded, see for example every iphone thread.
I'm pretty sure I'm at least partially it. I like to check the site out every now and then to get a point of view from the other side. HN, although having a lot of high quality discussions, can sometimes be a deafeningly loud echo chamber, and getting a different perspective helps to, well, put things into perspective.
I see posts that don't quite make sense. Well, we have people here whose first language is not English, so you can't expect perfection.
I see posts that have a definite agenda, or spin on reality, or bias. But humans have those things, too.
But I see the volume of this going up in the last couple of years. I wonder...
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