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Comment by IAmBroom | Hacker News Reader

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.

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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.

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