Hacker News Reader

Comment by rat87 | Hacker News Reader

I'm not sure what you're trying to say but evidence overwhelmingly suggests that former President Trump colluded with Russia (a hostile foreign power) for personal electoral gain in exchange for decisions which benefited the Russian government. The problem isn't with the news media reporting on this it is, far from nothing, the problem is with Republican leadership refusing to put country ahead of party and get rid of Trump

View on HN

No, no it does not. You believe this based on a continuous stream of suasion and half-truths with zero, zero tangible evidence of a crime, or even of malfeasance. If you clear your mind for a moment and review the actual facts you will recognize this. However, I recognize it is very difficult to relinquish closely-held beliefs, especially when you look around and see people agreeing with you and confirming your biases.

Russia is another foreign power whose interests often run counter to those of the US and which often acts accordingly. That does not make it a “hostile” power, at least in the sense the term has been used for decades; there is not even saber-rattling. Sure, its government is a bag of dicks and its people seem to like strongmen and authoritarianism and persecuting gays, but that’s not hostility.

The evidence of collusion - whose existence you assert without naming, not that there isn’t any - wasn’t as persuasive to me as it was to you.

persecuting gays

This is a perfect case of an actual disinformation. There's no persecution of gays in Russia. There's no law for persecuting gays, there's no actual persecution happening.

There's at least one openly gay bar in every major city, operating for years and everyone knows about them. Nobody cares.

Just a few days ago I've seen two girls carrying LGBT flag on a street of a small Russian town. Nobody cared (although they obviously wanted attention).

Only gay propaganda is disallowed in Russia, but it's not the same as "persecuting gays".

The last major cyberattack came from Russia. Russian hacker group ransomware hit US companies. It may not be "The Cold War", but it's definitely US vs Russian nationalism.

Your comment is proof that the disinformation campaign the OP is talking about worked.

Trump put sanctions on Russian pipelines, which Biden later lifted. Is that evidence of Biden being beholden to Russia? Every president makes hawkish and dovish diplomatic decisions, the inferential correlating of them to lurid rumors is not evidence for the rumors.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com