Being right or wrong is often irrelevant to the question of “does it belong on HN?”

Not only do other HN commenters largely agree that it belongs to HN, they decided that it deserves to be the top comment on this discussion, at the time I authored this comment

Which is sad for someone who has been here for well over a decade. I never came here for political banter, I came for technical discussion. Facts, truths and subject matter experts. HN is slowly becoming less concentrated version of that.

"I don't want to discuss politics" when it's directly related to the topic at hand, is a complaint from the decadent class. It affects peoples lives, it's relevant, it's entirely plausible given the situation.

People are going to have to deal with the presence of politics in regular life for the unforeseen future, because the luxury of avoiding politics is generally the sign of having good governance.

Pretending that “politics” exists as something separate or invasive is not only ignorant, it’s dangerous.

If this were a thread about IBM machines of the 1930s, would it be playing “politics” to note that those machines were sold to Nazis and supported by IBM through sub-contractors even while we were at war with them? Is it crossing a line to mention they were used to facilitate the Holocaust?

Let's not pretend everyone is aghast at the goals of this administration. We just had an election and these viewpoints resoundingly won the day.

A non-trivial component to this election was this constant, smug nagging. "We know better, you're all so stupid".

If you turn out to be right, enjoy your smug "I told you so", but until then - these views are a minority and are very tiring to constantly see/hear/read.

That's a pretty simplistic analysis. People largely voted on immigration and inflation. You can't infer anything about what they thought on other issues.

Inflation was caused by increased government spending, no?

The last COVID stimulus package added from 1 to 4% to inflation, but that was transitory. The wider rise was largely due to other factors such as supply chain disruptions from the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The latter significantly raised oil prices worldwide which in turn raised costs for all kinds of things.

Here's an article that covers a lot of the factors [1].

[1] https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2024/joe-biden-kamala-...

A source with less partisan politics involved:

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/federal-spendi...

I trust a survey of economists over a random study. That study might be right, but it also might be wrong, and I don't have the expertise to say which.

Why is tiring to hear a minority especially in this forum?

only some special minorities can be heard while others are shut down

It wouldn't be of it was not just different variations of "Hitler Hitler Hitler, Russia Russia Russia!"

We've been hearing how doomed democracy is for the better part of 10 years now. It's really old...

Oh, you’ll be hearing it for much longer. Greetings from Germany.

Wait, when you see someone say "department of government efficiency" and mention corruption you hear "hitler hitler hitler"?

Maybe you're just really tired of hearing any criticism of blatant corruption and I'm sorry you're feeling that way. I bet that feels really discouraging and tedious and adversarial.

To me this comment reads as a callout of corruption, not fascism. The hitler criticisms you mentioned, in my experience, have been for things like the maga hats with the nazi font, the republican convention stage in the shape of the SS glyph, and the claim that immigrants are watering down the proper American bloodlines.

To your other request that people stop sharing their concerns: just because a lot of people vote for something doesn't mean it's inherently ethical nor does it mean people should be silenced. My assumption is most people don't want corruption or abuse or racism or fascism; if you think that too then you might have better success helping people understand why they are mistaken about what looks like corruption instead of telling people to just stop sharing opinions you're personally tired of reading.

Ah great, he doubles down on it. Good stuff.

You just have to hear it and I can't visit the city I was born in, so you will keep hearing it.

Because you are sharing legacy media's views. We can turn on a tv for that.

> legacy media

Doesn't Fox News have the highest viewer numbers of any of the news stations? What fraction of local news stations are owned by Sinclair? I don't think you get to call "legacy media" out for being liberal when such a large part is not.

No, fox News isn't the highest. ABC,CBS and NBC News have more viewers.

Combined? Fox takes all of the top 10 positions in overall/demo group. Top among the youth / all / daytime / nighttime.

In fairness, we can turn on a tv for any view. There's like a gazillion channels. Just pick your poison.

Doesn’t Fox News routinely get the highest ratings too?

I'm not Nielsen Ratings or anything, but that would be consistent with what I would think. Fox viewers being older, and older being consistent with tv viewers. Younger being consistent with TikTok, YouTube, InstaFaceTwit intake.

Fox has the youngest demo (500,000 for Jessie Watters) and most viewers. At night or during the day. Interesting cnbc has the oldest audience and least. Gutfeld crushes all late night shows (Tonight show, Late Show, Kimmel).

https://www.newsweek.com/chart-shows-network-ratings-2024-el...

“Young” among tv viewers is different from “young” among social media tiktok’ers. The article you linked actually says that exact thing:

> “suggesting younger voters were either less engaged, or getting their election night information from other sources such as social media and at-home streaming, which are not tracked by Nielsen.”

Young people won’t watch tv unless there’s a game or tv series on they’re interested in. Even then, a lot of them will DVR it on Hulu or something. If you want those eyeballs, you’re going to need to be creative. And tv networks can’t be as creative as instaFaceSnap, Netflix and TikTwitGram.

Your browser has an X button (I suspect)

I don't know man?

The vote was like 50.1 to 48.2 at latest (accurate) count. Which is terrible news to everyone. Because, unless my math is wrong, that means there were more people who were so unmoved by either party that they couldn't be arsed to go out and vote, than there were voters for either party.

And all those people are pissed off.

Personally, I think stuff like comments on HN and Twitter are gonna be a good pressure valve over the next few years. Maybe even some Onion, Saturday Night Live and Daily Show for those masses. Because if those people ever get what they perceive to be a reason? I mean, they've already shown fairly consistently that they're no longer interested in the whole non-violent democratic norm of voting thing. And if a guy like Trump can't even bring them out, that means they're not at all interested in anything either side is selling.

After looking at those numbers, I guess I just wouldn't be so sure that the people making these comments are liberals. Or even independents for that matter. Independents on the sidelines are, at least, reasonable and vote. What we have boiling outside the stadium, so to speak, is something different entirely. And if they'll satisfy themselves yelling insults at the people inside the stadium then we should all probably let them. Don't make the mistake of thinking it's a bad thing.

If a lion starts chewing on your football, let it have the football. Don't be foolish. Just back away and go get another ball to continue your game with the opposing team.