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Comment by Multiplayer | Hacker News Reader

Why is this on Hacker News?

HN has always had space for some political stories—the ones that overlap with intellectual interest. This one arguably does. Whether HN is capable of discussing it substantively is a separate issue.

Many past explanations here:

https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

Is disinformation fractal in nature? Is there ever a purpose to discussing it, or is the discussion the purpose?

Pretty sure you’re thinking way too hard.

"Intellectual interest" is a new one. You are once again letting too much snake oil promulgate through this service. You have a responsibility here to do a better job that you're shirking on the thinnest of excuses.

Intellectual interest is, far from being a "new one", literally the thing this site was created for 15 years ago.

All snake oil is intellectually interesting in some way. If you're entirely agnostic to it, then why do you even have a moderator? Just sit back, relax, and let these people continue their relentless slide into the absurd depths of navel-gazing political conflict found everywhere else.

If you're interested in stopping the promulgation of snake oil, then the linked article should be catnip for you. It features lying to the FBI, thin DNS evidence, and a coordinated media disinfo campaign.

This predictably turned into a flamewar. I didn't learn anything new, and it doesn't seem like anyone else did, either. I don't think this community does pure politics well, and I also think that's fine. No forum (IRL or digital) does.

I agree that these types of posts become (IMO, on HN, reasonably well-mannered) flamewars. I disagree that it's pure politics. Manipulation of public opinion by shaping or inventing narratives is a non-partisan, matter of public interest. Consider (hypothetically, of course) the danger of a global war in the nuclear age brought about by demonisation of The Enemy in mass and social media.

I don't think this site can or should be a venue to discuss 100% of matters of public interest. It's one of the few social media that isn't rage-inducing

Also, the author is a hyper-partisan and (left-wing, not right-wing as some here have assumed) and this report has a political agenda.

I'm not sure if this subission was entered into the second-chance queue before or after this comment, but HN did put its thumb on the scale here, as it does from time to time.

(Disclaimer: I've both benefitted from that in the past and nominated other items for the queue.)

"Whether HN is capable of discussing it substantively is a separate issue." Indeed...

Before. And it clearly didn't work.

Nod. Thanks.

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