[pacnard]

I am talking about comments. Of course I can be wrong about this situation since it's basically gut feeling and perceptions. Still, aside from the votes, there have been some really weird comments in this thread too, something that just doesn't feel it can align with how a programmer or entreprenur would express himself. Sorry if I'm sharing my emotions.

[dang]

You're underestimating the range of opinion in this community and breaking the site guidelines by insinuating that it's astroturfing instead of people posting in good faith. We don't allow such insinuation here because it's the fastest way for an internet discussion to poison itself. You're not the only one doing it—this poison has unfortunately been all over the place lately with the spats about GDPR.

All: please (re-)read https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html, assume good faith, and keep these off-topic insinuations far away from HN in the future.

[distances]

I feel it's a ludicrous idea that EU would have paid commenters anywhere. It's just not politically feasible; someone would leak sooner ir later, and the political fallout would be enormous. Russia is known to do that, but I don't think even they bother with HN. The simple explanation is, I think, that at some point the timezone is right for folks from Europe, or the post just hits the frontpage.

As for your gut feeling, could it be that the other viewpoint is just so foreign to you? I'm a programmer and hacker, and generally pro-regulation, as I feel that a strong state is a necessary counterbalance for the self-interest of companies.

[ACow_Adonis]

I've said it in other threads and I'll say it again: programmers and entrepreneurs are far more than silicon valley, advertising companies, and ad supported websites. Part of the reason may be the myopia of a certain type of programmer in not realising they are possibly the minority.

As an aside, each time I post a comment like this, my karma goes up and down like a yo-yo for 24 hours :p

[kuschku]

A large part of the developer community are European open source developers with slightly left of center views.

The community of programmers, developers, and hackers/makers (in the original meaning) has historically always been left-liberal in general, that in recent years there are groups in it that are not is rather unusual.

So of course you'd expect opinions that go against this mainstream to be downvoted.

[xevb3k]

Comments in this thread seem to range from “measured” to very negative... I don’t really see any that I’d clearly identify as state sponsored.

Your comment got flagged/downvoted, but I think that’s likely because it wasn’t backed up with any evidence. A more systematic analysis would be interesting though.