Hacker News Reader

I somewhat agree, but on the flip side - if they had had a "standard political party" name, I doubt they'd had any traction when they were getting started, and not gotten to the European Parliament at all. Remember that the major increase in membership count happened around the time the Pirate Bay founders were in court.

View on HN

I think you're wrong here. There's some major political instability in many parts of Western Europe, with people abandoning mainstream parties in favor of new parties that aren't associated with the political establishment.

Some to the left, some to right, some with "standard" names, some with "alternative" names, but same the pattern is all over the map.

And I don't even think it's all that different in the US. Different system, different symptoms, but both the Tea Party and the Occupy movement come from the same dissatisfaction with the political status quo.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com