I just deleted a comment I was going to make on another HN article that was basically a long political rant against the Republicans. Ugh. It's not valuable when it goes either way, and I doubt there's this huge lack of sympathy for the disaster. If anything, we all saw it coming. It's horrible. When I read these other posts I don't see people not caring, I see people quite frustrated because they do care.
There's this line of debate that goes "Since I cannot argue with you on merit, I will call you heartless and rude"
It's designed to shut people down without consideration for the merits of what they are saying.
It kinda works sometimes. Sure enough, there are plenty of folks who are heartless and rude on the net. But when I read comments that begin with "This whole situation is so sad, because it is 100% human caused. This is not a natural disaster! Socialism does not work and it is not moral..."
I nod my head. This doesn't mean I care less for the people involved. In fact, I care more. What a terrible thing to bring on yourselves for what appeared like a noble cause at first! And how many other South American countries have skated with this very disaster, most of the time coming out better than these folks did.
This is a horrible disaster and I wished I could do something about it.
You don't have to be a troll to point out that this has been a train wreck everybody saw coming, and the disaster continues to play out with more and more harm befalling others -- all for predictable reasons. That's not trolling. That's just where we are.