| ▲ | shell0x 5 hours ago |
| I think the middle eastern conflicts are a tragedy. That said, this story does not belong on HN. As others called out this is a tech community and while there is sometimes an overlap with politics, it should at least be somewhat related like mass surveillance or AI being used for war. HN is one of the most informative and least toxic communities and I’d appreciate if it would stay this way. |
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| ▲ | Sparkle-san 5 hours ago | parent | next [-] |
| At the same time, there must be a point where general humanity overrides community guidelines. |
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| ▲ | therealdrag0 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Why? Everyone has alternative news sources where they can find such stories, and there’s nothing new here. There’s always some tragedy that you could argue deserves more attention, I don’t think we should hold our guidelines hostage to pleas for the heart. | | |
| ▲ | Sparkle-san 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | > I don’t think we should hold our guidelines hostage to pleas for the heart. I don't think that's an accurate framing of the situation. It's a single post that enough people decided was worthy of being upvoted to the front page. I think allowing the community to decide is far more inline with the spirit of hacker news than the outright banning a category of posts. | | |
| ▲ | fc417fc802 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Without taking one side or the other I just want to point out that a large part of the utility of guidelines or rules is that communities left to their own devices typically develop toxic patterns that are detrimental on the whole. They enable the community to decide not to leave something up to the community in the future. It's a large part of the idea behind countries having constitutions for example. |
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| ▲ | IncreasePosts 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Why does Gaza get 10x the coverage on HN and other social media well, when what has been happening in Sudan in the same time period is 10x worse? (The 10x coverage number is from algolia hn search, the 10x worse number is from reported killings in the past year) | | |
| ▲ | Sparkle-san 4 hours ago | parent | next [-] | | Because there is often a large tech component to it. The United States and Israel have two of the most advanced high-tech sectors in the world and they are playing a large role in this conflict. | | |
| ▲ | muzani 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | And the people on HN work disproportionately in such companies, so it hits closer to home. If Microsoft, Meta, Palantir, OpenAI, etc, were complicit in genocide in Sudan, Sudan would have much more attention. |
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| ▲ | anigbrowl 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | Because Sudan isn't a tech/investment hub, and there's no overlap betweent he US and Sudanese defense industries. | |
| ▲ | YeGoblynQueenne an hour ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | That's a legitimate question and it has no good answer. Not just Sudan. There is an ongoing genocide in Myanmar, against the Rohingya. There is an ongoing genocide against the Uyghurs in china. None of those get nearly the amount of coverage the genocide in Gaza gets, or, now the war in Iran and Lebanon. I have no idea why. I have recently started to grow a bit paranoid and wonder whether I am being manipulated by the media I consume. That would not be a huge surprise, I'm willing to bet most people are influenced by some of the things they read online. Anyway this is an interesting question that has to be answered: why only Gaza, and not the other genocides? | |
| ▲ | awnird 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] | | The atrocities in Gaza are funded by, and sometimes even committed by, Americans. That’s why a predominantly American forum is interested in it. | |
| ▲ | tovej 4 hours ago | parent | prev [-] | | Because the west (our political and economic system) supports this war, and does so much more loudly than the war in Sudan,which is funded by the UAE, also a US ally, but a far less visible and consequential one. Nobody is visible working the media or politicians to win people over for the UAE every day, unlike Israel. The aggressor in the Gaza genocide is also pulling the rest of the west into new wars in the region. The war is also deeply connected with our defense and tech industries. There is plenty of reason to discuss this war. | | |
| ▲ | xg15 4 hours ago | parent [-] | | Also, the conflict around "the area from the river to the sea" in it's entirety is something like 140 years old, with western countries having played a driving role since the very beginning. The Sudan conflict on its own has no such history. (The colonial history of Africa is a different story) Generally, I think it's reasonable to pay more attention to conflicts where the own side is in the wrong. I don't need to demonstrate or raise awareness if my government is already acting like I'd want it to. |
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| ▲ | selcuka 3 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > it should at least be somewhat related like mass surveillance or AI being used for war Sure. Let's spin the story on developments in laser-guided sniper rifle accuracy: > Suddenly, the boys said, they saw laser pointers shining on their family from every direction, heard their mother scream, heard their father say “God is great” — and then heard a deafening fusillade of gunfire. |
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| ▲ | oulipo2 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| HN routinely talks about politics. Thinking that technology and politics can be understood in isolation is a pipe dream |
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| ▲ | khaledh 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| Israel has its hands in many tech companies and circles. The tech community deserves to know who they're dealing with. |
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| ▲ | diego_moita 5 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| > and least toxic communities Your comment sounds toxic to me. It endorses silence in face of a genocide. We discussed a lot other wars here without immediate technological or economic consequences: Ukraine, Iraq, etc. Why not the genocide in Gaza & West Bank? |
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| ▲ | crawfordcomeaux 4 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-] |
| The tech community props up these regimes by continuing to serve their tech needs. Everything is political in this day. Toxic is saying politics needs to be kept separate. If we can't discuss how tech is literally fueling genocide, enslavement, and exploitation of people, then all other discussions tacitly serve those functions. |
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| ▲ | sreejithr 5 hours ago | parent | prev [-] |
| Exactly! Don't bring politics into HN. Everyone and their dog have grievances. There's a time and place for them. |
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| ▲ | Ar-Curunir 3 hours ago | parent [-] | | Exactly, we shouldn’t waste the precious time of HNers so that they can instead… checks notes… read about the nth vibevcoded side project! | | |
| ▲ | poisonarena 2 hours ago | parent [-] | | I come here to escape these reddit style cesspools.. hacker news is literally for tech news and nth vibecoding side projects |
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