Why is this comment thread off topic?
The underlying reason for the Bloomberg story is the CCP silencing dissidence.
Ironically, this comment thread about the silencing of CCP dissidence is itself silenced...
The underlying reason for the Bloomberg story is the CCP silencing dissidence.
Ironically, this comment thread about the silencing of CCP dissidence is itself silenced...
https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que...
Would you please stop posting this sort of grandiose, generic rhetoric? There are plenty of comments in this thread representing the same view you adhere to. The requirement is simply that people post thoughtfully and reflectively, rather than from a knee-jerk reflex or flamewar place.
No, that's not because we're secret communist sympathizers. It's because on HN, we want threads not to be predictable. Readers come to HN to have their curiosity gratified. There is zero curiosity being gratified in angry, repetitive comments.
This is an area where the interests of readers are not aligned with certain kinds of commenters—the kind that want to do ideological or political or nationalistic or religious battle on the internet. The site guidelines explicitly ask you not to do that, so please stop doing it.
Based on everything I've seen, though, the null hypothesis is that what you're describing is explained not by a difference in the audience, but by the topic. China was already probably the single most divisive topic on HN in the last year. Obviously the covid crisis has accentuated that. This isn't an HN thing—it's all through Western media and no doubt a symmetrical version is running through Chinese media as well. HN can't possibly be immune from macro social trends ( https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&que... ).
You can see that I've been making this point, including about China, for a long time:
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19219091
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18758864
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18227719
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=18413084
Also, note how those commenters have the perception of exactly the opposite bias on HN? That's how this goes.
This has been happening for a long time, and when we moderate both sides, each side takes it as proof that we're biased against them.