[flagged]
Here's George Orwell saying that in 1944:
https://www.orwell.ru/library/articles/As_I_Please/english/e...
Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
31–40 of 94 posts
Re: Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
#32When I first moved to the Bay Area, San Francisco was described by one person to me as "quite conservative actually." At the time, that seemed unlikely. However after a while, I can now see why this is the case.
If you had much empathy for the downtrodden you couldn't stand to live at the epicenter of the homelessness crisis.
I am not 100% sure that your implication really tracks with conservative behaviors. I would say it would be more likely that non-empathetic conservatives would work pretty relentlessly to relocate homeless out of their communities rather than just ignore and co-exist with it.
I am not saying they would solve it, but they would make it some other community's problem.
Re: Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
#33Opinion answer - no, judging by the votes and contents of the majority of the comments about politically charged topics, I'm pretty sure that most of the people here are approximately center-left leaning, and more libertarian than authoritarian leaning. Some examples, without judging them - HN on average seems to support European worker protections than USA free for all stance, at the same time EU bureaucracy and red tape is mostly universally frowned upon as a factor slowing down economical innovation. Ukraine and Taiwan are supported more than Russia and China. Palestine/Israel opinion seems to be a split, but subjectively it seems majority leans pro-Palestine. Trump is universally reviled, I haven't seen any pro-Trump comments here (at least above 0 votes). Musk is a split opinion, but also majority seems to be against him this year. Megacorps are widely disliked, with a new anti-Google topic popping up very regularly, same with Facebook and Amazon, unless they are strictly about new good IT stuff. Creepto is mocked by majority, anarcho-capitalism too. Aaron Swarz is universally liked as are others with the same leaning.
All in all these are definitely not right wing opinions.
Re: Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
#34I have trouble taking people seriously when they use “fascist” as a blanket term to discredit people they don’t like.
I have trouble taking people seriously when they refuse to call things what they are because they don’t want to admit it.
The problem is that fascism historically encompassed a number of political and power qualities and what is being described as “fascist” today might have some of those qualities, but not necessarily all of them. Ironically the side yelling “fascist” today also has some of those qualities, but doesn’t want to admit either.
Probably just best to focus on those qualities you don’t like on the other side and leave the labeling to the future historians.
Re: Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
#35Earlier quoted context omitted.
If you had much empathy for the downtrodden you couldn't stand to live at the epicenter of the homelessness crisis.
I am not 100% sure that your implication really tracks with conservative behaviors. I would say it would be more likely that non-empathetic conservatives would work pretty relentlessly to relocate homeless out of their communities rather than just ignore and co-exist with it. I am not saying they would solve it, but they would make it some other community's problem.
I think it selects for people who don't care. Or maybe it is a warning that it could happen to you if you don't suck up to your brat boss.
Re: Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
#36I noticed that too, so I used this as a test case: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=44588392 it hours to get it flagged where a Trump/Musk criticism gets flagged in a few minutes. But it was flagged. I really really doubt HN is "pro-fascist", but I think it leans to the right because it is the rich that funds their projects.
It's a misconception that most HN users are startup founders taking investor funds.
Most HN users are tech employees or freelancers on salaries or contractor fees, so whatever political slant HN has aligns with that.
Posts about the U.S. administration and tech celebrities get flagged because people try and submit them every day and they lead to repetitive flamewar discussions, which is everything that HN is trying to avoid.
Re: Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
#37I have trouble taking people seriously when they use “fascist” as a blanket term to discredit people they don’t like.
Maybe we should define our terms then? I favour this definition of "ur-fascism" by Umberto Eco: https://archive.is/VamLM
To steal a few examples from a convenient summary list someone[1] made:
1. The cult of tradition. “One has only to look at the syllabus of every fascist movement to find the major traditionalist thinkers. The Nazi gnosis was nourished by traditionalist, syncretistic, occult elements.”
2. The rejection of modernism. “The Enlightenment, the Age of Reason, is seen as the beginning of modern depravity. In this sense Ur-Fascism can be defined as irrationalism.”
3. The cult of action for action’s sake. “Action being beautiful in itself, it must be taken before, or without, any previous reflection. Thinking is a form of emasculation.”
4. Disagreement is treason. “The critical spirit makes distinctions, and to distinguish is a sign of modernism. In modern culture the scientific community praises disagreement as a way to improve knowledge.”
...
10. Contempt for the weak. “Elitism is a typical aspect of any reactionary ideology.”
Open to other definitions. But I look at that list, written in 1995, and it feels like you can check off a lot of these items in things that are rapidly being normalised.
1. https://www.openculture.com/2024/11/umberto-ecos-list-of-the...
Re: Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
#38As a whole? No. But only because Hacker News is not a monolith, and there are many groups with various viewpoints here.
Are there pro-fascist posters here? Absolutely. I've seen full throated advocacy for some vile things here. The worst of it usually gets flagged.
Is there a strong correlation between flagging political posts and support for fascism? Not necessarily. Although some of that is definitely the HN Trumpist/right-wing contingent, this forum harbors a particular distate for anything not explicitly tech related (often beyond what the actual site guidelines state to be on topic) which includes politics of any kind.
And HN is designed so that flagging and downvoting has a much greater weight than upvoting, so it really doesn't even take much to tank a thread.
Re: Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
#39I have trouble taking people seriously when they use “fascist” as a blanket term to discredit people they don’t like.
Do you feel the same about use of terms like "socialist" or "radical left"?
Re: Ask HN: Is HN Pro-Fascist?
#40If we didn’t flag a bunch of them, that’s all there would be. I like my HN with a side of politics, not the other way around.
I think the OP's question is what about when the story, while involving politics, is more about technology than anything else? I can see flagging it on the principle that even mildly political tech stories bring out the political rhetoric in the comments... is that a principle among the moderation (I would strongly support that if it is)?
Funny thing is, I'm a liberal arts kinda guy, I'm mostly respond to political and special interest stories, and I find plenty of them, but I will flag like the 5th "Musk did something crazy" story I see in a week.