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Comment by npteljes | Hacker News Reader

I don't see why this is newsworthy. The guy has a 26,000-word Wikipedia article just about his lies only. I don't see why every one of his insane utterances must dominate the front page of every English-speaking news site. His detractors, and his supporters all agree that this is the way he is. Did any trend change, compared to his past? If not, then let's move on.

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Because there exists a real, nonzero chance that this is the piece of evidence that will convince some of his followers to finally admit he is either insane, shockingly stupid, or incompetent due to dementia.

I would personally trade that hypothetical chance to not have to look at this piece of news, and especially for everyone else not having to look at it too. I think this would be a net positive for the short term, and I think that it wouldn't affect the long term either, so it's an overall good choice.

Main reason is that reality doesn't seem to concern the voter base of these people like Trump. If it did, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. And I'm not just meaning Trump here, but all the other populist leaders in the world as well.

I think if these kinds of articles were effective in that regard, we wouldn't be in this situation in the first place. So, if the goal is to change the minds of people for the better, instead of banging on about the trivial, we should be looking at how to communicate better. "Told you so" doesn't work.

There is literally a hide button right there if that’s your actual wish… somehow you clicked on the one to read the comments and then accidentally clicked on the button to reply multiple times to it.

You are very right. In fact, it worked me up so much that I haven't remembered that I can also flag the article, as the guidelines suggest.

Which let’s be honest is what you wanted to do all along. This was never at any point about you personally wanting to not read something but about you making sure that nobody else could. Congratulations, you’re exactly the kind of person I had assumed you were.

You're misreading my point. I'm not trying to stop this information, I'm criticizing the editorial choice of repeating this kind of story over and over: both for the BBC, and for HN. In its form, I think it doesn't do the readers any good, and as such, it's unwanted. On the BBC, for general mental health reasons, and on HN, because it doesn't foster curious discussion. We can bang on about Trump, and that is about it. Don't we have that everywhere else on the internet?

I don’t think you have any rights whatsoever to tell other people what they are allowed to discuss. I understand if you personally want nothing to do with the conversation that’s your right and that’s what the hide button is for. You should use it if you genuinely feel that way but I am having a real hard time to take that claim at face value.

You are right that I should give this topic a rest.

The same reason China and human rights stories, which btw has more upvotes than this story, is newsworthy: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45796907

Can we say that China and human rights abuse has a big word count Wikipedia page so lets move on?

States and head of states need to be held to higher standard.

>States and head of states need to be held to higher standard.

I agree completely. We don't see in the article what Xi has said about it though.

Is it newsworthy when cancer spreads from the liver to the brain in a patient? It is what cancer does, after all, and everyone knows that. So, why pay attention to it?

I bet that would attract the attention of the patient and their loved ones! But, patients are also sick of their own ailments too.

And I also bet that relentless cancer coverage would affect a cancer patient more negatively than positively.

> Please don't complain that a submission is inappropriate. If a story is spam or off-topic, flag it.

More guidelines available at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Thanks for the reminder. I was so heated that I in fact forgot that I can flag the thread.

Silence is compliance.

Failing to cover Trump's bad behavior because he has always been bad is how we get "both sides are the same" trash.

Pardons are also particularly newsworthy because the Trump DoJ is exploring whether Biden's pardons can be invalidated via the claim that he wasn't aware of what he was doing (the autopen conspiracy).

> he wasn't aware of what he was doing

Every accusation is a confession. Exhibit #5871

> "No idea who he is"

I think OP was talking about "newsworthy" in the HN sense.

I kind of agree, because it's quite likely to devolve into pot-stirring flame bait comment threads.

Thanks, I'm meaning it especially in the HN sense. I'd expect HN, and frankly, new sources as well, to focus on trends, larger pictures, context, education. Minutiae are entertaining, but distracting as well.

I am yet to hear of a single republican even just acknowledging that Trump ever lied. They're that deep in the cult. So yes, I think it's still important to speak about these things publicly, even just as a litmus test, if not anything else.

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