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Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

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241–250 of 1001 posts

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#242

If anything, Hacker News should be more political, and it ought to get its political act together. People here are always talking about moral issues, implications of technology on the working class, climate issues, accessibility, etc. Well, talking about those issues is just moral posturing without , and politics is the negotiation of power. These are all political issues. If you care about your fellow person, you al…

Did the Internet transform the economy with ? Do people ride Uber because Uber has power? Did Apple coerce people into buying its products by the billions?

I think technology coupled with a market economy shows us the way that societal transformation happens from the emergent order of individuals acting in their own self-interest, rather than being forced to choose a "better way" by those in power.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#243
Based on Agnolia, these are the most popular stories from the past week on HN that might be construed as "political":

#17 Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for a week https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13108404

#23 Canadian journalist's detention at US border raises press freedom alarms https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13092330

#29 Help Us Keep the Archive Free, Accessible, and Private https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13065599

#37 Facebook’s Walled Wonderland Is Inherently Incompatible with News https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13103611

#49 War Is a Racket by General Smedley D. Butler (1933) https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13068641

#59 FBI to gain expanded hacking powers as Senate effort to block fails https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13074285

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#244

Hi dang. About 45m ago, I added a comment [1] in the Amazon GO mega-thread that mentions the concept of religion. Is this comment acceptable per new policy? [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13108455 (Aside: I believe that this detox experiment is treading on dangerous ground, that it will be a struggle to contain the amount of censorship that will happen as a result of encouraging people to flag each other in…

I'm not a mod, but I wouldn't flag your comment. Mentioning faith-based alternatives for human interaction may not be 100% on-topic, but it isn't political or divisive.

Now, if you had recommended one faith/sect over others for a superior experience of human interaction, then maybe you'd have a problem.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#245
post #210

To tell you the truth, I put myself into a politics news vacuum the day after the elections and the results were announced. I no longer frequent the politics sites (left and right) that I used to visit being a politics addict. I now no longer want to listen to any politics for the next 4 or 8 years (whichever the term may end up being). I have stuck my fingers in my ears and am spouting "la la la la...." loudly whene…

I'm in that boat too. I've turned off Twitter and have with rare exception stayed away from news sites. Headphones go on whenever I hear a political discussion near me.

Not sure I can keep this up for 4 years, but I'll give it a go.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#246
post #127

I think it's a great idea. Will this be posted publicly somewhere so people who did not see this post will know not to submit political stories?

Not sure why you got downvoted. Any thread from a paywalled site has people asking why it's okay to post paywalled content, or how to get around the paywall, even though that was announced in a similar thread.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#247
post #62

I find this experiment a bit strange/disturbing, avoiding political subjects is a way of putting the head in the sand. HN is a community of hackers and entrepreneurs and politics affects these subjects one way or another wether we want to avoid it or not, and are an important component of entrepreneurial and technical subjects. It might be fine if HN was a scientific community, but it is not the case, and even then p…

I fully support this detox week. As someone whose political views don't align with the average HN reader, I often feel marginalized by unfair downvoting in political discussion, even though I have made my points in an informed and respectful way. It often feels like there is one prevailing slant on this site and those of the majority are free to push their views while the rest of us must either read it and ignore it…

FWIW, I enjoy well articulated dissenting opinions, as well as experiences brought from sources external to a community's shared experience. It's instructive as well as frequently enlightening. That said, I do also appreciate tribal familiarity and the "relaxed state" that comes from friends who think alike.

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#248
The metaphor is good and the approach and description is actually great. The challenge is that this issue doesn't only happen in the political domain, it can happen in the philosophical and intellectual domains too via the cultural competition (AKA cultural war)

Re: Tell HN: Political Detox Week – No politics on HN for one week

#249

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I fully support this detox week. As someone whose political views don't align with the average HN reader, I often feel marginalized by unfair downvoting in political discussion, even though I have made my points in an informed and respectful way. It often feels like there is one prevailing slant on this site and those of the majority are free to push their views while the rest of us must either read it and ignore it…

The rub is, a lot of difficult conversations lead to what are effectively political answers. Take the amazon go which is on the front page right now. We need to be able to have a conversation about job displacing technologies, and hacker news has been a good venue for smart, civilized discussion on the topic. I'm all for flagging uncivilized discussions, but eliminating discussions outright because they might make pe…

Perhaps the upvote/downvote could be removed from political stories and in its place, an "abuse" flag could be substituted?
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