Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

npr.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

371–380 of 1001 posts

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#371

Post by g42gregory »

umvi wrote: post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

I think it's social media amplifying the divisions through targeting. I also wonder if it's culture of corruption by both political parties that is beginning to come to light? In the old days, you wouldn't read about it in the New York Times or Wall Street Journal, but now, on Twitter and other places, could could see just about anything. There is a difficult task of separating the truth from the fake news, but there is more information available, which was not available before the Internet explosion. Just my guess, though.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#372

Post by [deleted] »

dhruvkar wrote: post #47

Are there people here on HN that believe the election was stolen? I haven't seen any evidence, most of the lawsuits haven't borne fruit either. However, I also recognize that there may be blindspots/biases. I'd really like to hear from anyone who believes this, to present a cogent argument. I promise not to attack. I want to hear the argument from the other side. I also beseech the rest of HN to please refrain from a…

[deleted]

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#373

Post by dang »

Klonoar wrote: post #362
dhruvkar wrote: post #47

Are there people here on HN that believe the election was stolen? I haven't seen any evidence, most of the lawsuits haven't borne fruit either. However, I also recognize that there may be blindspots/biases. I'd really like to hear from anyone who believes this, to present a cogent argument. I promise not to attack. I want to hear the argument from the other side. I also beseech the rest of HN to please refrain from a…

There are shill accounts that pop up whenever the topic comes up - if you look at the creation date / comment history of the accounts, often they're within the past few days and only discussing that.

Please don't break the site guideline against insinuations of shilling without evidence. There are simpler explanations for such accounts.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#374

Post by skissane »

umvi wrote: post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

> How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality?

My own impression is that this is far worse in the US than in most other first world countries. If I'm right about that, then explanations based on social media algorithms etc don't really work, because the same algorithms apply in other countries too. It really then needs a US-specific explanation.

Maybe, the US has just got too big and too diverse – I am talking here about political/ideological/worldview diversity, not ethnic/racial/etc diversity – to hold itself together in the long-run. Countries don't last forever, and the US isn't going to last forever either. Of course, it isn't breaking up this year, and I think other countries are likely to break up before the US does (such as the UK, Spain, Belgium, Canada). But maybe these current events are bringing that eventuality closer to us.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#375

Post by eli »

ineedasername wrote: post #358

This is what happens when a country's leaders actively dog whistle an incitement to violence and others hitch their political future to fiction & propaganda instead of fact.

It's not really a dog whistle. Just a few hours ago the President told his supporters gathered near the Whitehouse to march to the Capitol.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#376

Post by [deleted] »

umvi wrote: post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

[deleted]

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#377

Post by jandrese »

zmmmmm wrote: post #346
umvi wrote: post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

I think it's been a long time in the making but the real spark that lit the fire was the media's (and general population's) passive treatment of Trump's lying in the 2016 election period. During that time he was already telling whoppers, and the media sort of humoured it. You can see now four year's later that his version of reality is deeply embedded in a way that is nearly impossible to correct for - this make take…

Depending on what media you consume they didn't just "humor it", they actively reinforced whatever he was saying, and vice versa.

Many organizations were fact checking and calling out the President, but they were part of the "lamestream media" and his supporters were explicitly told not to listen to or trust them.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#378

Post by jMyles »

umvi wrote: post #72

How did we arrive to this point where a huge chunk of the population is in one reality and another huge chunk of the population is in another reality? Segregation of information sources? Politicization of media outlets? Self-reinforcing social bubbles? A combination of all of them and more?

I don't think we are in that situation at all. I think that everybody - regardless of their politics or candidates of choice - is frequently inundated with the notion that we're very different.

But having visited 43 states in the past five years, and making it my business to talk politics and religion everywhere I have gone (especially in the aftermath of the 2016 election), I have repeatedly been surprised by the simple commonness of people's hopes: for peace, justice, security, prosperity.

Most people with whom I spend my time seem to think that Trump voters are all just like Trump. But I have not found that to be so whatsoever. I have repeatedly been surprised and sometimes even confused by the reasonableness and sophistication of Trump supporters, especially in the South.

And rage at America's institutions - including surely dreams of raiding the Capitol and wrecking havok - is surely not limited to one party of political view. It's not a tactic I favor, though I do certainly hope to see this silly building fade into the irrelevance of the failed state.

The incentives of social media algorithms are influential in the way we think about each other.

We are constantly shown Trump supporters who can't form a coherent and fact-based narrative. We're shown 'antifa' who seem to prefer roving destruction and mayhem rather than an equitable society.

But neither of these tropes reflect anything close to the reality of 2020 America. We are a society of peaceful, educated, hopeful people. Travel. Ask. You'll see.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#379

Post by paulnechifor »

altdatathrow wrote: post #363
patagonia wrote: post #258

Politics maybe off topic, but this is partially our fault. It’s always frustrated me that politics are largely unaddressed on HN. Not talking about it doesn’t make it not so.

> but this is partially our fault Yes, I've called dang out on his inaction numerous times. HN is utterly filled with alt-right scum.

You might be living in a bubble if you think HN is alt-right. Trump got 46.9 % of the vote. He has nowhere near that level of support here.

Re: U.S. Capitol Locked Down Amid Escalating Protests

#380

Post by chillwaves »

bluedino wrote: post #352
dhruvkar wrote: post #47

Are there people here on HN that believe the election was stolen? I haven't seen any evidence, most of the lawsuits haven't borne fruit either. However, I also recognize that there may be blindspots/biases. I'd really like to hear from anyone who believes this, to present a cogent argument. I promise not to attack. I want to hear the argument from the other side. I also beseech the rest of HN to please refrain from a…

I believe that allowing mail-in ballots was a mistake and resulted in inaccuracies.

Be specific. Which states had issues?

What exactly are you claiming? The whole election is invalid?

Why did R gain seats in the House? Can you explain that? A rigged election that only applies to the top line?

You are pushing conspiracy theory, no matter how you try to dress it up.

Post reply on HN