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Comment by SpicyLemonZest

9 days ago

Ridiculous that this got flagged. Do people think that Trump rewriting laws to suit his whim isn't going to become relevant to their own companies and projects?

I don't think it's ridiculous that it got flagged - it's only superficially about technology, and is instead mostly about general US politics. Many people don't think HN is the place to discuss general US politics. (I wouldn't personally flag it since it doesn't seem like it's already all over multiple news sites.)

  • There's no "instead". This story is extremely relevant to the many HNers who run tech companies or make regulatory decisions on their behalf. They need to know that tech regulations are written by executive fiat now, they can't trust that any statutory text means what it says, and many of their competitors are seeking out ways to bribe the Trump regime for regulatory advantages.

    I understand that a lot of those people enjoy the polite fiction that partisan controversies in Washington have nothing to do with their jobs. I do too, and I hope that we can get back to a world where it's practical soon. But sticking your head in the sand won't save you.

    • You're conflating the audience with the venue; people who read HN can also read NYT or Reddit or whatever for their US political news. It's not any of our individual responsibilities to decide what people here "need to know"; that's the whole point of the voting and flagging system.

Honestly, no, it's not the least bit surprising that this was flagged. It's a damn-near inevitable consequence of letting anyone on the internet flag things.

What's truly ridiculous (though not surprising [0]) is that it still hasn't been white listed by HN moderators. They're the ones who bear responsibility for this major story being suppressed.

0 - Growing list of recent falsely flagged stories here: https://news.ycombinator.com/favorites?id=mandmandam

Not so ridiculous when you realize who runs this site.

  • I'd expect them to be especially interested! It's virtually certain that some number of YC companies over the next four years will find themselves in a similar position to TikTok over the next four years, wondering whether they can get away with bribing Trump to rewrite a law in their favor.

They still believe they're in the in-group maybe? Or they're just that ideologically captive.