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Comment by gyulai | Hacker News Reader

Wow, this is increadibly weak stuff. A left-leaning newspaper reports on the liberal-leaning WEF, airing the complains of an anonymous group of employees, some of them not even current employees.

> Klaus has been at the helm of the WEF for 52 years.

Wouldn't that make him qualified to continue doing what he has been doing for 52 years?

> When he was born [in 1938] 122 of the 195 states in the world right now did not even exist.

God only knows what they're implying here.

> He is completely unaccountable to anyone inside and outside the organisation,” the group said.

Which is supported by what evidence? ...not to be found in the article. Also unclear who he is supposed to be accountable to. Apparently some trustees or something. ...now that would have been interesting for the article to go into detail about.

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What has the political slant of the paper and WEF got to do with it? If that’s relevant, surely a left leaning paper attacking a left leaning organisation makes the article more compelling?

By liberal, I mean free-market liberalism (like FDP in Germany). I'm European. It didn't occur to me that people in the U.S. would misunderstand and think "liberal" means "left". Is that the miscommunication that's happening here?

Likely. I live in the US, and the terms "liberal" and "conservative" are used to mean left/right in US politics. Thus, in US politics terms, your comment says "A left-leaning newspaper reports on the left-leaning WEF...".

Right, to Americans, "liberalism" -> "classical liberalism", and "globalist neoliberalism" -> "liberalism".

I'd say that's incorrect, to the vast majority of Americans "liberalism" means left/progressive, that's simply what the word has evolved into in the mainstream. You use "classical liberalism" when you mean "classical liberalism" unless you're talking to some kind of economic historian or libertarian pedant and it has more context.

Ha, yes. However I’m a New Zealander in New Zealand.

What do you make of this, then? Third row, on the right side:

https://www.younggloballeaders.org/community?class_year=&pag...

>Wouldn't that make him qualified to continue doing what he has been doing for 52 years?

A long tenure does not necessarily mean that one is qualified to continue.

> When he was born [in 1938] 122 of the 195 states in the world right now did not even exist.

I would like to know where writing such as this is taught. Everyone knows what '52 years' is there is no reason to embellish it in that way UNLESS you are writing to a tabloid audience (mainstream media to be sure does this as well).

And it deprecates the main point which (if true) is the strongest 'not accountable'.

Liberal leaning? I hate to be rude have no idea what you're talking about and it sounds like you have a terminal case of "two party system brain"

This is unfair. The commenter you are replying to is claiming that a liberal organization is being attacked from the left, and this is a pretty fair statement. Even the sales pitches for why you should subscribe to The Guardian make it clear what their bias is, and those are on the bottom of every page.

And this is actually a pretty refreshing take because it correctly distinguishes between liberalism and the left. Both of which are distinct from conservatism.

At worst you could say they have a three party system brain.

Their concern is not whether he's qualified but that he's going to die of old age soon without leaving anyone clearly in charge.

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