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

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

#731

Post by ohpuhleeeze »

rybosome wrote: post #619
ibejoeb wrote: post #545

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>We have a golden period of forty-some days before a new administration comes to power that has shown every intent of using that information to deport people and create a national Muslim registry. This is why I support a moratorium on politics here. This kind of assumption and hyperbole is really off-putting. I'm happy to debate these topics, but not here. Now, that said, it's going to be a little murky. For example,…

This is not hyperbole. http://www.nytimes.com/politics/first-draft/2015/11/20/donal... > Donald J. Trump, who earlier in the week said he was open to requiring Muslims in the United States to register in a database, said on Thursday night that he “would certainly implement that — absolutely.” Mr. Trump was asked about the issue by an NBC News reporter and pressed on whether all Muslims in the country would be forced…

That quote is from 2015. If everyone held people to what they said a year ago despite them softening on the issue or even changing their mind completely... well then why is Obama so highly regarded by the left?

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

#732

Post by s_q_b »

BHSPitMonkey wrote: post #289
s_q_b wrote: post #255

I live in Northwest Washington, D.C. I am a technologist, a government contractor, and an HN member for many years under various accounts since 2008. I respectfully disagree. Yesterday someone motivated by the "Pizzagate" story, spread and enabled by the social media systems we designed , fired multiple shots from a semi-automatic weapon into a crowded restaurant near my home. My partner and I passed the crime scene…

I think the question is not whether the issues are important, it's whether they're on-topic right here . Your example is meaningful but that doesn't mean it should be discussed on Reddit under /r/comics or /r/cooking. Since HN doesn't have categories/subreddits, I think there's a diverging sense of what readers want to find when they come here.

The topic of this thread is the policy of banning political comments for one week. I stated that the experiment should not be conducted at this time, due to the forthcoming appointment of a government official, which HN should discuss given yesterday's events. It was certainly relevant on this thread.

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

#733

Post by guildwriter »

contingencies wrote: post #398
guildwriter wrote: post #156

This feels a lot like closing the barn doors after the horses have already gotten loose. This kind of action was sorely needed weeks ago, especially when political articles turned into flame wars populated by 140 char political emotional screeds. It was really disheartening to see HN turn towards the same kind of political discussion I have to endure on other sites. Especially when commentators who tended to post tho…

Barn doors and brush fires ... are you Aussie by any chance? :)

Californian I'm afraid.

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

#734

Post by aaronbrethorst »

olalonde wrote: post #675
daptaq wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One could argue, that when you live in a democracy, politics are a necessary duty for every citizen. For a democracy to flourish, no place, no topic, no time should be unfit for discussion, because if you forbid politics, you just manifest the status quo, which doesn't have to be a-political!

> For a democracy to flourish, no place should be unfit for discussion This is obviously false. For example, plenty of democracies have flourished despite having libraries where silence is golden. > One could argue, that when you live in a democracy, politics are a necessary duty for every citizen. HN is international and if I recall correctly, more than half of users are not from the USA. Some users don't live in a…

Libraries and librarians tend to be opposed to censorship of what they may contain.

> Some users don't live in a democracy and some don't believe in it.

I look forward to arguing with monarchists about their views at some point in the future, then.

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

#735

Post by tropo »

rpeden wrote: post #265
tarikjn wrote: 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 think it is reasonable to avoid political subjects that are off topic. Which is difficult, I know, because on-topic for HN is literally 'Anything that good hackers would find interesting.' Perhaps, for politics, it would be good to try to limit political discussion to things that affect the technology world broadly, and startups specifically? In the past, topics like those have been discussed here quite productivel…

Limiting to "people with 500+ or karma" doesn't make for a reasonable discussion unless you like an echo chamber with 100% pure San Francisco values.

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

#736

Post by pessimizer »

gambogi wrote: post #312
dang wrote: post #48

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Right, it's not possible to define "politics" precisely, and it would be a mistake to try. But there's nothing new in that; the HN guidelines have always mentioned politics without defining the term, and we get by. We can clarify, though. The main concern here is pure politics: the conflicts around party, ideology, nation, race, gender, class, and religion that get people hot and turn into flamewars on the internet.…

I don't understand how race, gender, and class in particular can possibly be separated out from tech any more so than software patents. A community that has been so obsessed with disrupting any and all aspects of life can't ethically refuse to discuss the consequences of doing so.

I would assume that discussion about software patents would fall under the ban, too. You can conceivably draw a line between discussions about implementation and discussions about the laws affecting different implementation. Wouldn't all discussions of the law fall under politics? Maybe just all discussion of potential changes in laws?

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

#737

Post by nextstep »

tarikjn wrote: 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…

Dr. Seuss said it best: https://twitter.com/erikwithfriends/status/80588582390006170...

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

#739

Post by nitrogen »

dang wrote: post #504
Analemma_ wrote: post #495

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You've already pissed everyone off with this bad decision, it's not like you can make it much worse. Might as well get it out there and at least try to defend yourself.

Things can always get worse.

FWIW I think the moratorium is the right call, and I would analogize it to a temporary ceasefire. Sometimes the right thing to do in a chaotic situation is to shout "Stop!" and gain better objectivity during the reprieve.
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