Comment by thenaturalist

3 months ago

It would be really, really great when the open Israel hate and borderline Antisemitism displayed in many threads related to these topics could be moderated to the same tune.

It's the same hate that has killed Jewish Americans in the past year.

Many of these replies are very low on facts, very high on emotionally loaded subjective opinions.

It's a challenging task as BBC and so many more Western media outlets had to retract and amend their own faulty reporting over the last few months, but if we're talking about the spirit of the site, everyone should be held accountable equally.

Example at the top of this thread:

> Why is the president of the United States protecting a blood soaked war criminal?

https://news.ycombinator.com/reply?id=46006941&goto=item%3Fi...

3 comments

thenaturalist

Reply
dredmorbius  3 months ago

HN mods act on behaviour rather than position.

If someone's violating HN's guidelines (<https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html>) or FAQ (<https://news.ycombinator.com/newsfaq.html>), flag the post or comment. Both links are found at the bottom of most HN pages. If there's an egregious violation, email mods at hn@ycombinator.com.

Most moderation (that is, votes and flags) are by members of the site, mods step in very rarely, usually guided by flags or emails as noted above. Member actions may well be driven by factors differing from those of mods, part of the moderators' job is to correct for those biases.

  • thenaturalist  3 months ago

    This reads like a sleek way to weasel oneself out of responsibility.

    So what you're effectively implying is that the court of public (in Israel instances very clearly biased) opinion rules the site?

    So guidelines for thee (Israel supporters) but not for me (Israel haters and Antisemites).

    A famous poem from Martin Niemöller, who actually lived through facism comes to mind:

        First they came for the Communists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Communist

    Then they came for the Socialists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Socialist

    Then they came for the trade unionists
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a trade unionist

    Then they came for the Jews
    And I did not speak out
    Because I was not a Jew

    Then they came for me
    And there was no one left
    To speak out for me