Ask HN: Looking for a HN that's not tech-focused | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Looking for a HN that's not tech-focused

15 pointsJDiculous6 comments

I'm looking for a site like Hacker News, except without the tech focus. Basically a HN/Reddit-like forum focused on current events, important societal issues, etc. where the quality of content/discussion is high.

8 years ago Reddit was amazing, but now it's an absolute joke (outside a few specialized subreddits). Quality of content is generally terrible (eg. memes), political correctness (ie. the "hivemind") is rampant, upvotes are based on wittiness/terseness/political correctness while anyone with a dissenting opinion is downvoted, and the demograph of the site - at least in the default subreddits - seems to consist primarily of 12 year olds.

Anybody know of any alternatives?

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I think that the internet, by its own nature, self-segregates people. I might not have data to back this up, but it is apparent that people go online to ratify their own views, rather than to listen to others.

I have also left reddit, mostly because the discussion around any controversial topic is toxic. Toxic. At least here you get the occasional moderates who are willing to actually have a discussion, where they try to check their assumptions and the logical leaps that they make to justify a point.

But to answer your question, I simply say that perhaps HN is the best place to have this type of discussions. Simply because politics, important societal issues, etc permeate our lives, including the technology that we use. In that sense, a good way to ponder about these issues is not to face them directly, but to deal with them as they arise within the confines of our daily lives.

By the way, I have made plenty of weird assumptions and assertions in this post, and so have you, and the weird thing is that instead of focusing on those issues, it is likely that I would feel personally attacked if I were shown to be wrong. That is part of being human, but it is also ultimately why talking about any issue is hard:

critical thinking is hard, and uncomfortable, and a concept that everyone talks about but that nobody is really willing to utilize.

metafilter.com

Seconded. Metafilter is one of the best-moderated communities out there.

What are your subreddit recommendations?

Just improve your Twitter feed - follow the right people and you got it. ;)

I'm baffled by the notion that a site with such a powerful and motivated faction of actual white supremacists and open misogynists is apparently too "politically correct" for you.

I consider myself fortunate that I can't even imagine what level of mentality one would need to be too extreme for a site that once allowed rape jokes about its own CEO on the front page, and once mass trolled itself in great number because someone dared shut down a sub devoted to discussing the murder of black people.

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