Hacker News Reader

"Jussie Smollett staged a hate crime, and was convicted of such."

Doesn't the fact he was convicted and received widespread ridicule everywhere disprove the author's point.

Absolutely not. Quite the contrary. They originally dropped the charges against him in agreement for 16 hours of community service and forfeiting his $10,000 bond. He inflamed racial and political tensions for attempted personal gain, which is quite a serious crime.

https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/26/arts/television/jussie-sm...

Politicians regularly inflame racial and political tensions for attempted personal gain. That doesn’t seem like a good argument.

Politicians also regularly get away with it, which is a cornerstone point in the article that supports its premise.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com