I only know about the whole Tan Suit thing because Reddit keeps mentioning how big of a deal it was. They will never let it go.

I could counter with "Two Scoops" and Donald Trump feeding Koi incorrectly but I would be rebuffed with example of Republicans getting upset about Barrack Obama's choice of mustard.

Right, so now the outrage is about the other side's outrage? Ironically, they probably talk about the tan suit more now?

And I don't know, how can you have it both ways? If you make fun of Trump's hair or his wife's coat, then isn't it exactly the same?

I think you're exactly right. Outrage begets outrage.

If you're trying to look at this as an outside observer, what each side is doing looks exactly the same. Mutually assured pettiness and hypocrisy.

Maybe it's my social bubble of working in tech and so on, but it seems like the left dominate the outrage more these days. Certainly social media and mainstream media is heavily left-leaning. It's obvious to me which side you have to be careful about saying you support at work. It's obvious which side will attract more downvotes on Reddit and even Hacker News. Perhaps that'll change now that Biden is in the White House, though I doubt it.

Given that your comment has been downvoted and grayed, your observation seems to have been confirmed. My hunch is that 'the left' is much more involved in activism and that translates to being more vocal in online forums and more liberal in giving out downvotes.

Haha of course. I don't have any experience being a democrat in, say, Wyoming, so I'm not entirely sure if my observation is correct. But I would genuinely feel like my career is in jeopardy if I wore a MAGA hat to the tech office. I can't imagine the vice versa scenario being equally widespread in right-wing communities. So even though I live in more leftist circles, it does feel like the outrage is more intense in general.

I understand there are two sides so our natural inclination is to say "both sides are equally bad!" like disciplining children or something. But sometimes one side is a little worse than the other at a particular moment in history. I don't think it makes me a partisan to point some things out.

Are those the things the left or the media got unhappy about trump for though? Or was it the children in cages? "Covid will be gone in a few days" ? And the like?

The one where he was very proud that he could identify an elephant annnnd that proved he was a very stable genius?

I don't know what the two scoops or the koi thing are, but i do know the republican media has been pretending Biden is senile for a while now.

You sound quite partisan to be honest, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt. It is true that Trump's (or anyone's) opponents are allowed to be outraged over serious things. But you literally just pointed out at the left also got outraged by trivial things:

> The one where he was very proud that he could identify an elephant annnnd that proved he was a very stable genius?

Trump boasted about a quiz, who cares? It's not important. But it was in the news cycle.

Honestly, I think the left really despited the way Trump talked and phased things more than anything else. If he spoke more mellifluously like Obama, but did even more drone strikes in Yemon, CNN wouldn't go after him as much. Another example is "China virus". You know, like MERS (Middle East Respatory Syndrome), Spanish Flu, Japense encephalitis, German Measels, Zika, Ebola, etc.? All named after where they came from. He only called it the Chinese virus in response to a question from a reporter who said that the Chinese government claimed the US government made it in a lab. But of course, Trump must have said it because he's a racist and wants to blame Chinese Americans. It's just so silly and manufactured outrage.

I can think of a few other examples of overblown outraged just off the top of my head. I think the media just generally cried wolf a lot. Every time Trump sneezed it was a scandal. So then people either tuned out entirely, or got outraged by Trump every day. And thus here we are with are divided country.

And you can clearly see the difference:

- Obama wore some clothes that people got upset about because it didn’t look great on him.

- Melania wore a coat declaring she doesn’t care about how thousands of children are treated.

Wait, what? Are you saying Melania actually wore the coat for that reason? Or are you saying the left's outrage is worse than the right?

My OP about Melania was sarcastic: she actually wore it to say she doesn't care about the bullshit articles the media runs with. I can't tell if you agree with me or not over text.

She either wore that coat for that reason, or because that consideration was so unimportant to her that she welcomed the interpretation. Either way it doesn't compare to a bad suit.

Oh jeez. The first lady didn't wear a coat to secretly tell people she hate children. Even if she did secretly hate children (despite all her charity work), why would she want to "secretly" tell the media this by wearing a coat, and then lying about her motivation? Turn off CNN and stop visiting /r/politics once in awhile my man.

Melania Trump wore a $39 jacket saying "I don't care really care", as she was getting on a plane to visit a children's shelter in a border town in Texas where many children were separated from their parents.

What's the Occam's Razor of why she did that, do you think?

Melania Trump — like all the first ladies — spent a great deal of time doing charity work for kids and so on. Most of the time, nobody paid any attention to her clothes. One time, she wears a jacket, and explains why she's wearing it: "to show the media I don't care what they think.". This day, just like the many other days, she is also doing some charity work (she didn't even wear it while with the kids, by the way). So use Occam's razor yourself: is she doing it to send a secret message that shat she doesn't care about the kids? What on Earth would be her motivation for doing that? To help win votes from people that hate children? If she hates kids, why would she bother getting on a plane in the first place? Or, is it more likely she's doing it for the reasons she literally said? Does she really hate kids? Or, does the media hate her? What's more likely? Use Occam's razor or Hanlon's razor.

Why on Earth are you quoting it being a $39 jacket? Why is that relevant? Your overly outraged, negative interpretation is just proving my point about how people are getting outraged over fashion for no good reason.

Man, I think both sides are ridiculous. I don't like myself when I get drawn into these kinds of discussions. It's obviously not going to be productive.

> "Guess I'll have to explain [because you're too dumb to get it]."

> "Are you ready [for the truth bomb I'm about to drop on your small mind]?"

Your comments just make me want to write something equally childish like: "Yeah, but who built the cages?"

These back and forth comments just have a way of sucking people in. It's just silly. You're not ready to have a good faith debate. Read back your comment. Was it ever going to convince me of anything? What was the point? I'm stepping away from this conversation.

You're breaking quite a few of the posting rules with your comment here, most notably the first one - "Be Kind" [0]

High quality discussion is what makes HN a unique place on the internet, so I ask that you re-read the guidelines before posting again as it benefits the community as a whole.

[0] https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Okay I made the mistake of paraphrasing you. I neither think she hates children of any walk of life nor does so secretly. I do think she was sending the message that she didn’t care what was happening to them and wanted it to be well known.

Edit: not that I have any reputation at stake but I’ve literally never intentionally watched CNN or visited /r/anything.

Is this a “dog whistle”? Or what I like to call “political mind reading”?

“I have zero proof, but I knows it’s true because of how you are.”

That's literally what the conversation is about: debating what someone else is likely thinking. And look, on another thread I've already been called a racist haha. Just incredible, it's like clockwork.