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Comment by spankyspangler | Hacker News Reader

That sounds like a pretty wild conspiracy theory. Any basis for this belief?

Would you please stop posting flamewar comments to HN? We ban accounts that do that, as you know. We're trying to have a different quality of discussion than what this sort of thing leads to. Please make your substantive points thoughtfully.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

We detached this subthread from https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27178252.

Ahh, you not only detached the subthread but also crippled my ability to reply. Your intentions to swiftly protect the feelings of your user base and shield them from difficult conversations is laudable, though misguided because you inadvertently left the "The “become COVID-19 carriers to own the libs” strategy kinda worked." comment up. Or is that what you mean by different quality of discussion?

It was certainly not my intention to start flamewars so I will make all endeavours to stop doing that (and stop beating my wife etc). From the votes and subsequent productive discussions in the thread you disconnected, it seems like a good number of users agreed with me, and we were able to shut down the conspiracy theory talk while leaving the door open to further discussion of the interesting parts (virus spreading between towns and cities). So I genuinely don't see the problem, but I can hold my nose and try to be gentler with conspiracy theorists if that would help.

Because I will continue to call out baseless conspiracy theorists and hateful / flamewar comments as I see them, while trying to be calm, measured, and proportionate in response. If calling out baseless and harmful conspiracy theories proves too much for fragile users or moderators to cope with, I'm more than happy to move along from your site, and leave you to your "different quality" discussions and conspiracy theories.

I rate limited your account, which is standard practice when an account has been posting too many low-quality comments too quickly. It hasn't crippled your ability to reply; it just means you need to wait a bit. We're happy to take rate limits off when people give us reason to believe that they've taken the intended spirit of the site to heart and will post fewer and more substantive comments in the future. That would be the opposite direction from things like "I will continue to call out" and so on—we're trying to avoid online callout/shaming culture, denunciatory rhetoric, and things like that, because they're so tedious.

Intention not to start flamewars is good but not sufficient. You also have to actually not start them (or perpetuate them). https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

Virus reservoirs are things. This is why New Zealand has not admitted tourists, and why their case count is so low.

But New Zealand not admitting tourists has little to do with whether in California "surrounding towns act as virus reservoirs for the large cities" and even less with there being a “become COVID-19 carriers to own the libs strategy".

> Virus reservoirs are things.

Clearly I was not suggesting the concept of a virus reservoir was a conspiracy theory. I don't know if you were being deliberately obtuse, but it does not help the conversation.

The parent made 3 claims, increasingly improbable, with the last seeming to be a hateful conspiracy theory.

>> Except these surrounding towns act as virus reservoirs for the large cities.

The assertion is the towns acts as reservoirs for cities. Is that really true?

>> That limits the effectiveness of restrictions.

Is that really what limits the effectiveness of restrictions in cities?

>> The “become COVID-19 carriers to own the libs” strategy kinda worked.

It's pretty obvious this is the conspiracy theory I was talking about. The suggestion seems to be that conservatives in surrounding towns (but not those in the cities) had conspired to develop a biological warfare strategy based on becoming infected in towns and then traveling to infect nearby cities.

This is one of the most hateful, unhinged paranoid delusion I've ever read about COVID. But this kind of thing doesn't raise many eyebrows on sites like HN because people think it's plausible or even likely ("yes it must be those hateful angry racist divisive conspiracy-theory-believing conservatives who are always out to get us, clearly it's conservatives who are to blame for any and all political failings that occur in liberal-run areas").

I'd hazard he's being ironic.

This all said, there's a germ of truth in the unhinged paranoia - it's a bit like rolling coal. You heard of rolling coal? It's where people modify their trucks to make them emit toxic black smoke. It's bad for your engine. It's bad for your fuel economy. But, it's also bad for those pussy cyclists and eco-freaks who keep on going on about global warming.

There is a powerful current in politics across the west that is actively, self-destructively antagonistic towards anything an expert says - and it's not based on profound disbelief in the value of expertise, but rather a deep disaffection, a desire to tear down the whole edifice of culture that makes you feel small - and that has carried into coronavirus precautions, where the bogeyman is not the virus, but the intrusive, patronizing and sinister powers of 'public health', a perfect representation of the entire institutional culture that your average NRA member hates.

"Wild conspiracy theory"? Uh, what? It's exactly what happened where I live. At least half of our hospitalizations at peak were from neighboring areas that had no more capacity due to low or non-existent restrictions.

You are assuming causality there. That remains unproven. It could have been due to other factors, or random chance.

> That sounds like a pretty wild conspiracy theory.

The concept of viral reservoir seems to be pretty basic and well established concept in virology, both in terms of macrobiomes (i.e., populations) and in terms of microbiomes (i.e., microbiotic community in the gut).

A quick googling will show you a huge list of well-research introductions from reputable sources, if you're interested in the topic.

Come on. Did you honestly believe I was referring to the concept of a viral reservoir as a conspiracy theory? This kind of obstructive style of conversation is unhelpful and tiresome. Some other poster above already tried that shtick, you can read my reply to them.

> Please respond to the strongest plausible interpretation of what someone says, not a weaker one that's easier to criticize. Assume good faith.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com