Largely it just means "hiring non US/European engineers". When a company fires some people in the US and replaces them with people in India people lose their shit. But remote work is also considered the pinnacle of enlightened hiring.

The problem is that employees want something and then justify that thing being good in whatever way works.

If a company fires their local staff and hires someone in a cheaper location for the same job, that's really shitty for the people who got fired. If a company keeps their current staff but also then hires more people, regardless of where they live, that's remote work and is far less shitty.

I mean... of course getting fired sucks. I'm actually surprised that you seem to be arguing that getting fired should be considered a good thing?

As someone who doesn't live in the US/Europe this is how "remote work" on HN comes across to me.

I'd wager that most of the "remote work" employees at US companies are US citizens living inside the US. In my experience (I'm an IT consultant who works remotely and visits many other companies) companies who hire remote employees outside of the US tend to do so as contractors, not as employees.