I find this, so far, to be the single most important event since Kiev-not-falling-within-48 hours after the Chinese winter games last year.

This is the riptide. And Wagner surprisingly still has 20k - 30k soldiers. Even if it fizzles, this is a landmark in the war.

So far it seems like they are going all in. I would say that it does not even matter at this point who wins as it will destabilize whole country/region either way.

Also who knows what will happen in Belarus and Chechnya as there are anti-estblishment forces that have been waiting for quite some time for an opportunity to strike.

Either way this has huge potential to grow into something similar as happend to USSR.

Large contingent of 'no politics, not my business' in here.

That's kind of stupid - politics affect our lives whether we like it or not. Especially these kinds of events where Russia might collapse from within.

Yes but it’s part of how this site has avoided being sucked into the culture war vortex.

Even though these events were provoked by the war, they are important even without that connection. Possibility of civil war / regime change in Russa will inevitably hit everyone in the world. Some will get hit more, some less. Some only economically.

Nothing to do with a culture war vortex. Burying your head in sand is not necessarily the smartest option although I understand that it is the easiest one.

It’s absolutely hasn’t avoided that though. There are stories about culture war topics almost daily and multiple on the weekends.

If it wasn’t pushed back against it would take over the entire site and every thread would devolve into a rehashed flame war about Trump or gender issues or something. Then everyone else would leave.

?

There's a difference between not wanting to interact with this news, and not wanting to interact with this news on this forum.

So just don't interact?

You can simply not click that link. I don't think that I've hidden/misrepresented or clickbaited the title to force you to click... You may not want to interact, others may.

*not my politics

Why "not my politics" == flag?

A potential coup in one of the world's most populous countries, who are also in the midst of the largest war in Europe since WW2, is not just "politics". That's ridiculous.

A major portion of Russia's de facto military, led by one of the country's most prominent figures, has left Ukraine and is heading for Moscow. This is history happening right in front of us. If HN was around in 1989, would the fall of the Berlin Wall have been [flagged] too?

Whatever else ... who has the nukes?

You are making a rational argument against an irrational and faceless adversary who wrote and continues to defend the guidelines which proscribe political discussion as being contemptuous.

It's simply not the proper venue because the policy admits so much distain and misunderstanding of politics that it can't effectively carve out a proper space for such discussion.

And further, the policy admits it cannot trust either participants or the voting system in place to manage such conversations. As soon as one person with power to flag, that's it.

These conversations inevitably make HN management nervous. Since they can't cope with it, no one else is allowed to.

This war is highly relevant even to a fictional Silicon Valley Tech Elite, as it causes unprecedented inflation, stock market rollercoasters, tech platforms and companies getting banned, counter banned etc.

Many are cyclops and believe that what they can't see can't harm them.

Yes it would. Because it would "be political" and gasp don't talk about politics!

Dong will tell you that this subject attracts flamewars, but then again I think he's just parroting what someone else told him and has really examined how people in HN actually discuss the subject.

There is a lot of politics on HN. It is one of the most common topics.

It will suddenly become their business if that Prigozhin thug seizes nuclear weapons.

I honestly don't know. To me it is one of the most important event that is happening this year.

That's why I posted it in the first place.

No doubt. And the invasion of Ukraine might be the most important event of the last 30 years.

Hopefully this new post isn't flagged:

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36457511

Edit: it is now

> If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic. [0]

This is just way outside of the HN wheelhouse. The guidelines are pretty clear.

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

Interesting, guess I’ll be flagging much more content now.

That is true, but the guidelines also say anything that gratifies one's intellectual curiosity.

History of nations & psychology & huge geopolitical changes is indeed something I find very interesting. And I think I'm not alone as I don't believe that hackers have to be interested only in tech and nothing else.

Many subjects that could also be quite interesting are still flagged due to the kind of comments they attract, i.e. the not intellectually curious kind. Even for more typical non-news HN content, things that veer into reactive territory get quickly flagged.

For what it’s worth, dang has commented on this specific event in more detail here [0] and addresses the curiosity piece.

Bottom line: all discussion about this event at this point will be made of speculation and hot takes, because we have very little solid info about the unfolding situation.

- [0] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36456034

That is the nature of unfolding situation. I was trying to post updates from the sources I found and was hoping more interested people would join in for us to get clearer picture and to watch up close.

Saying that you cannot have conversation about this just reeks of a poorly veiled elitism.

Dang also said that "coup has not happened" in thad thread you link to which leads me to believe he has no idea what is going on and what is at stake here or he simply does not care. Which is fine, but to say that there is nothing to discuss is just ... wrong.

I wish @dang would weigh in. Either unflag it (as I hope) on the grounds of it being a key event of high interest to curious people or confirm that this doesn't belong on HN (which would be a valid point, too).

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36456034 (EDIT: side note, it seems there is a surprising number of people for whom it seems incredibly important that this is on the front page, but that don't take part in the discussion about it. why? Something not being on the front page doesn't mean you can't discuss it!)

For every thread that I comment on there are usually several that I read because I find others' comments informative or thought-provoking. Reading comments is basically why I am on HN. There may be the same dynamic in play here.

On the topic itself -- this war, and the world reaction to it, is a critical part of modern history and will likely influence political, military and technological developments for years to come. I would love to hear more smart people express an opinion on it. Flagging greatly limits this.

fair point, HN could maybe do a better job making the "canonical" thread more discoverable for those that look for it (now that I think of it, flagged might remove it from search too even if not flag-killed, that's not ideal and would be an argument for removing that mark for the first thread, even if stays penalized in ranking)

Small note: @dang doesn’t do anything, if you were expecting that. Messaging [email protected] will work, though.

Because this is HN. When it's not about tech or startups, dang will come in and say it's political and so we're not allowed to talk about it.