[lordfrito]

More and more I don't understand what's happening with all of these political articles making it to the front page of HN and stuffed full of charged comments and lots of grey.

We may be smart techies but the arguments here about politics seem awfully reductive. We're out of our lane on most of this. What's with all the hate here?

The commentary here feels like its sliding it's way towards Reddit. Maybe I'm wrong, or maybe it's accidental, or maybe it's on purpose?

Hoping not to lose my faith in the quality of discourse on this website.

[spencerflem]

I think its reflective of broader society. For this issue in specific-

You either think sending the military to break up protests against the wishes of the governor and mayor and against the bounds of the constituion is a problem, or you are insane.

When ICE wears masks and whisks people off the street and sends them to overseas torture camps without warning or due process, you are either opposed or insane.

There's honestly no room for nuance on this. We're reaching the point where Trump is sending the military to enforce his unconstitutional actions. Things are awful right now and are about to get so much worse.

To be clear- if you support what's happening here: you are a bad person. i genuinely hate you.

[lordfrito]

> To be clear- if you support what's happening here: you are a bad person. i genuinely hate you.

This is the kind of political reductionism I was referring to. It's not OK to "genuinely hate" a person (or group of people) you've never even met, based on a single binary opinion you hold.. that's some serious "othering" going on. People aren't so black and white.

If your comment was meant as sarcasm I don't get it.

[e40]

I very strongly agree with you. I do think there are a group of people who are just in denial, though. Not very smart people, but nonetheless they can’t seem to believe what they are seeing. I don’t know how large this group is. Perhaps it is small. The person who you replied to seems to be one of them.

[LexiMax]

You are seeing the outcome of structural problems that plague any site that puts pseudo-moderation tools into its users hands. Voting and flagging has been weaponized on this site for far longer than most HN users would care to admit.

In fact, I feel like HN is much worse about promoting echo chamber behavior than Reddit, due to the visibility differences between a comment being downvoted/flagged dead, as opposed to merely being greyed out and collapsed.

If you haven't noticed it before now, it's because the incentive structure is weighed heavily in favor of the echo chamber. Those who engage in good faith eventually get tired of their comments being hidden by an unaccountable mob and leave - and to be clear, I am speaking in the past tense, as in this has already happened to HN several times over.