Comment by jsprinkles | Hacker News Reader

Comment by jsprinkles | Hacker News Reader

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Can anybody who is going to make a political nuclear statement for either side please read the prior threads on this topic where your point has already been argued ad infinitum? Someone else already thought about it and used scare words to drive the point home more effectively than you can. I promise.

Another article with Fukushima in the title! Yay! Now I get to argue like a moron because it is a polarizing topic! Stupid {atomheads,hippies}!

Nothing has changed in Japan so there is no reason to expect the thread to change. Shut up, please, and do something productive instead of convincing other hackers with no power to make energy decisions about your take on nuclear power. I can recite this thread from memory it has been rehashed so much and I have flagged it as a result. What can possibly be discussed that hasn't been beat to death in the last two months?

Here's some:

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2315205

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2318552

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2325588

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2316390

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2326726

http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=2396258

Find your own:

http://www.hnsearch.com/search#request/submissions&q=fuk...

No thank-you!

For better or for worse, if something is on topic, it's on topic whether it has been discussed before or not. For example, there are several separate posts about FB, PR, and Google, with the same arguments being repeated. There is no reason to flag any of the stories or the discussions just because you've read them before and you are no longer interested. Skip the post, or skip the comments, you have the power to ignore things, use it.

There is a deeper issue here around whether threads should be merged is some manner. So far, requests for this feature have not been heeded. Until there is a merge threads feature, each post on the subject is a brand new canvas.

According to the guidelines, this is off-topic.

> Off-Topic: Most stories about politics, or crime, or sports, unless they're evidence of some interesting new phenomenon. Videos of pratfalls or disasters, or cute animal pictures. If they'd cover it on TV news, it's probably off-topic.

This is covered on TV news, incites political debate, and is exactly the same phenomenon that's been rehashed to death.

Except that this is actually news, and some of us are interested in ongoing developments in Fukushima. It's one of the bigger engineering stories going on right now, after all.

You don't have to read the comments or argue about nuclear power to be interested.

> You don't have to read the comments or argue about nuclear power to be interested.

You could even go so far as to say you don't even have to be a hacker to be interested...

And at that point you should flag the article for being off topic.

Are you saying that nobody has yet made the "this topic is exhausted" argument and that your comment is therefore more original than the anti-{atomhead,hippie} comments?

I'm really disappointed that this is the top voted comment at the moment. @jsprinkles, it might be worth considering that your tone mars an otherwise worthwhile post.

I read your response as "I disagree with you, so your 'tone' is unacceptable."

I'm glad someone is pointing out how polarizing this topic is. I'm glad someone is pointing out that people are shouting each other.

People speculate and they opine and they rant. That the highest voted post provides a third point of view ("Let's recall that we've already discussed this numerous times") is a relief.

Also, if you want to attack a viewpoint, don't attack its tone, attack its argument.

> @jsprinkles, it might be worth considering that your tone mars an otherwise worthwhile post.

The fundamental disagreement I have here is that, in light of the political aspects (should governments allow nuclear power in general) this sort of thing affects all of us, and we all have a potential affect on the outcome, as political and economic actors.

If a news article is allowed to come out when "nothing has changed in Japan", and affect public opinion, I think we're allowed to deliberate it to do the same.

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