Comment by giardini | Hacker News Reader

Comment by giardini | Hacker News Reader

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Why, oh why, has this been posted here? Is there possibly a single institution that serves as more of a lightning rod for anger in the USA, in any political direction, than the ACLU? Would a similar article be posted about the NRA, the Simon Wiesenthal Center, or Southern Poverty Law Center (all which, along with ACLU, do excellent work for their contributors/supporters)?

From the ycombinator Hacker News Guidelines at https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

"Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon." What part of "politics" is this not?

This topic now is yet another gathering point for all unhappy with the election results. Perhaps this forum will allow those discontents to vent to sufficient degree to restore themselves to adulthood and return to their work, home and friends with a more balanced attitude required of a citizen in a republic. But I fear it will simply be another place for them to reinforce their anger and distrust. It's probably a good thing that liberals, in general, avoid firearms, otherwise there might be fighting in the streets already.

As I read this, I imagined you as one of those flailing tube people car dealerships put out.

Thank you! This confirms that I have reached the audience I intended!8-))

What else is there to do? YC owns the football. I have no choice but to acquiesce to their (re)interpretation of their own rules.

But they own neither the stadium, nor the electorate, nor the country. And there's a bigger game afoot than this one.

Why has this been posted here?

Because it relates to the public doings of YC, which are always on-topic (overriding the "no politics per se" rule).

Indeed? The logic of your well-thought out and ponderous argument is utterly overwhelming.

Might have as well said "Because we can!"

The logic of your well-thought out and ponderous argument is utterly overwhelming.

Actually it's a pretty straightforward consequence of the HN guidelines, which clearly do not forbid all political discussion; just "politics for its own sake", i.e. political talk not strongly anchored in some other intrinsically legitimate topic.

Perhaps you could kindly update the HN guidelines, since they don't say that.

That's OK, they're straightforward enough, as they stand. I'm sure you understand the meaning of the quantifier "most" in the second paragraph (as opposed to the word "all" which you seem to be imagining in it place).

On top of this, the moderators (which are very active on high-traffic threads) would have shut down this thread long ago, if they felt it was in contravention of these guidelines (as they quite routinely, in fact).

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

The president of the United States just signed an order legally barring hundreds of millions of people from entering the US on the basis of their country of origin, which is in fact unprecedented.

> This topic now is yet another gathering point for all unhappy with the election results.

Accurate.

> It's probably a good thing that liberals, in general, avoid firearms, otherwise there might be fighting in the streets already.

Classy

bb611 says> "The president ...signed an order legally barring hundreds of millions of people from entering the US ..."

But the reality is

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/zorn/ct-anti-trum...

"The fact of the matter is 325,000 people from foreign countries came into the United States" on Saturday, Priebus told NBC's "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd. "And 109 people were detained for further questioning."

What in your reply contradicts the facts presented in mine?

I'm happy to debate whether the topic is appropriate for HN, but that requires at least bilateral application of intellect.

Even if your fact was contradictory, it's from a member of an administration that routinely lies about basic facts to make them support its viewpoint, and this is no different: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2017/01/...

Dear YC: I told you so!8-))

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