Comment by DanielBMarkham | Hacker News Reader

Comment by DanielBMarkham | Hacker News Reader

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If that's the way you see it, flag it (but don't comment)

I was interested from the standpoint of how the technology sector transfer of knowledge, and common cultural values has led these two great nations closer together. After all, a significant portion of HN readers are from India.

I really don't like the Obama slant, and I wished it were left out. But (so far) I don't see the conversation degenerating along typical partisan divides.

In short, it's a politics and policy article, but (in my eyes) it's more along the lines of 30-year strategy instead of being some immediate, blabbed-on-cable issue. It raises some interesting questions.

Where's the strong ties, between the US and India or between the US and China? Where is more room for growth? Is there more security and opportunity for startups in one country than the other? How do people from each country see our relationship?

If it was simply Obama-bashing or left-vs-right or something, I'd consider it more out-of-bounds. But it's your call. I can only explain why it interested me.

"it's a politics and policy article, but (in my eyes) it's more along the lines of 30-year strategy instead of being some immediate, blabbed-on-cable issue. It raises some interesting questions.

Where's the strong ties, between the US and India or between the US and China? Where is more room for growth? Is there more security and opportunity for startups in one country than the other? How do people from each country see our relationship?"

All this is fine but it is still "politics".

From the HN guidelines,

"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon."

I guess we are now arguing on whether this story falls in the "most stories about politics" bucket or not. You seem to think it is some kind exceptionally brilliant article which is evidence for a new phenomenon.. I see it as the typical political hack job, and inappropriate for HN.

I would rather not see such US foreign policy discussions on HN. This particular article isn't even very interesting intellectually, which could be "of interest to Hackers" imo. This is a very fluffy article with some Indian guy (I am Indian too) pushing his pov on how the USA (and Obama in particular) should treat his nation of origin. Meh.

Point taken about not commenting on flagging. Mea Culpa. Totally.

Chalk it down to the fact that I was just overcome by the horror of a submitter who I respect submitting such a political article (that too such a fluffy one, with no meat on its bones), and seeing it as number one on the main page, with multiple upvotes.

So I still stand by "this doesn't belong on HN" or "Arrgh politics" ;-).

I'll quietly flag such articles in the future. Thanks cdr and DM for pointing out the right way to flag.

Chalk it down to the fact that I was just overcome by the horror of a submitter who I respect submitting such a political article (that too such a fluffy one, with n meat on its bones), and seeing it as number one on the main page, with multiple upvotes.

Exactly.

I also was surprised to see such a post come from a user who has consistently high-karma comments. My suggestion to DanielBMarkham is this: read the political article, extract those questions you found thought-provoking, write about it in your blog quietly referencing the political article, then post the link to your blog. (Don't feel bashful about posting a link to your own blog. It's not much different than an Ask HN post.)

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