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This has to be parody. JWST isn’t being cut to feed and house anyone. It’s being cut to give folks like me a tax break, so I can finish renovating my deck and buying artwork, and my neighbour so he can build a ski villa in Selkirk.
Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.
Comments should get more thoughtful and substantive, not less, as a topic gets more divisive.
When disagreeing, please reply to the argument instead of calling names. "That is idiotic; 1 + 1 is 2, not 3" can be shortened to "1 + 1 is 2, not 3."
Please don't fulminate. Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community.
Eschew flamebait.
Please don't use Hacker News for political or ideological battle. It tramples curiosity.
This is the core of the problem. Political posts should be prohibited on here, because each one of these discussions turns into political battle. It wasn't nearly this bad a decade ago. Now there is just no seeing eye to eye with anyone. It's full on "my tribe vs their tribe. My tribe better!". This place would be a lot better for everyone with a "computers or GTFO" rule.
We can't prohibit political posts here as nobody can agree where the line is between political and non-political. We tried having a politics-free week once and it led to a meltdown, and that is perhaps a lesson that the more you try and suppress something, the more it finds a way to resurge.
It's fine for political stories to be discussed here when they really do contain "significant new information" and provide a foundation for people to converse curiously. But that requires people to come here with a sincere intention to be curious and respectful and to observe the guidelines. Of course many don't, and our role as moderators is to remind people of the expectations. But as long as enough people do bring the right spirit, HN can still be a better place than elsewhere for discussing difficult topics.
I'm getting exhausted from blatantly uninformed "hot takes" like this comment and the GGP somehow becoming the majority. What is going on?
Let’s put aside that none of the current cuts have anything to do with helping the needy.
Societies that focus on subsistence subsist. Societies that focus on thriving thrive. ROI is a real thing. Just taking care of people, paradoxically, short changes those folks in the long run. The most productive thing a government can do is long-term investments. JWST—and the skilled labour that goes into it—is one such investment.
(Another is education, which unfortunately is required to understand how investing for the long run works.)