[notyourwork]

Am I the only one that is not excited about the next four years being constant banter of this nature? I loathe it. Nothing personal against your comment but the new administration hasn't even gone into office and I cannot get away from this.

[MBCook]

We’ve had them in office before, plus plenty of public statements over the last 10 years.

It’s not exactly baseless speculation. People have things to base their guesses on.

[Alupis]

Let's not pretend everyone is aghast at the goals of this administration. We just had an election and these viewpoints resoundingly won the day.

A non-trivial component to this election was this constant, smug nagging. "We know better, you're all so stupid".

If you turn out to be right, enjoy your smug "I told you so", but until then - these views are a minority and are very tiring to constantly see/hear/read.

[tzs]

That's a pretty simplistic analysis. People largely voted on immigration and inflation. You can't infer anything about what they thought on other issues.

[ivewonyoung]

Inflation was caused by increased government spending, no?

[tzs]

The last COVID stimulus package added from 1 to 4% to inflation, but that was transitory. The wider rise was largely due to other factors such as supply chain disruptions from the pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine. The latter significantly raised oil prices worldwide which in turn raised costs for all kinds of things.

Here's an article that covers a lot of the factors [1].

[1] https://www.poynter.org/fact-checking/2024/joe-biden-kamala-...

[ivewonyoung]

A source with less partisan politics involved:

https://mitsloan.mit.edu/ideas-made-to-matter/federal-spendi...

[Muromec]

Why is tiring to hear a minority especially in this forum?

[Alupis]

It wouldn't be of it was not just different variations of "Hitler Hitler Hitler, Russia Russia Russia!"

We've been hearing how doomed democracy is for the better part of 10 years now. It's really old...

[collingreen]

Wait, when you see someone say "department of government efficiency" and mention corruption you hear "hitler hitler hitler"?

Maybe you're just really tired of hearing any criticism of blatant corruption and I'm sorry you're feeling that way. I bet that feels really discouraging and tedious and adversarial.

To me this comment reads as a callout of corruption, not fascism. The hitler criticisms you mentioned, in my experience, have been for things like the maga hats with the nazi font, the republican convention stage in the shape of the SS glyph, and the claim that immigrants are watering down the proper American bloodlines.

To your other request that people stop sharing their concerns: just because a lot of people vote for something doesn't mean it's inherently ethical nor does it mean people should be silenced. My assumption is most people don't want corruption or abuse or racism or fascism; if you think that too then you might have better success helping people understand why they are mistaken about what looks like corruption instead of telling people to just stop sharing opinions you're personally tired of reading.

[valval]

Ah great, he doubles down on it. Good stuff.

[ashildr]

Oh, you’ll be hearing it for much longer. Greetings from Germany.

[Muromec]

You just have to hear it and I can't visit the city I was born in, so you will keep hearing it.

[knowitnone]

only some special minorities can be heard while others are shut down

[ipaddr]

Because you are sharing legacy media's views. We can turn on a tv for that.

[rootusrootus]

> legacy media

Doesn't Fox News have the highest viewer numbers of any of the news stations? What fraction of local news stations are owned by Sinclair? I don't think you get to call "legacy media" out for being liberal when such a large part is not.

[ivewonyoung]

No, fox News isn't the highest. ABC,CBS and NBC News have more viewers.

[bilbo0s]

In fairness, we can turn on a tv for any view. There's like a gazillion channels. Just pick your poison.

[MBCook]

Doesn’t Fox News routinely get the highest ratings too?

[llamaimperative]

Your browser has an X button (I suspect)

[bilbo0s]

I don't know man?

The vote was like 50.1 to 48.2 at latest (accurate) count. Which is terrible news to everyone. Because, unless my math is wrong, that means there were more people who were so unmoved by either party that they couldn't be arsed to go out and vote, than there were voters for either party.

And all those people are pissed off.

Personally, I think stuff like comments on HN and Twitter are gonna be a good pressure valve over the next few years. Maybe even some Onion, Saturday Night Live and Daily Show for those masses. Because if those people ever get what they perceive to be a reason? I mean, they've already shown fairly consistently that they're no longer interested in the whole non-violent democratic norm of voting thing. And if a guy like Trump can't even bring them out, that means they're not at all interested in anything either side is selling.

After looking at those numbers, I guess I just wouldn't be so sure that the people making these comments are liberals. Or even independents for that matter. Independents on the sidelines are, at least, reasonable and vote. What we have boiling outside the stadium, so to speak, is something different entirely. And if they'll satisfy themselves yelling insults at the people inside the stadium then we should all probably let them. Don't make the mistake of thinking it's a bad thing.

If a lion starts chewing on your football, let it have the football. Don't be foolish. Just back away and go get another ball to continue your game with the opposing team.

[buzzerbetrayed]

Being right or wrong is often irrelevant to the question of “does it belong on HN?”

[sangnoir]

Not only do other HN commenters largely agree that it belongs to HN, they decided that it deserves to be the top comment on this discussion, at the time I authored this comment

[notyourwork]

Which is sad for someone who has been here for well over a decade. I never came here for political banter, I came for technical discussion. Facts, truths and subject matter experts. HN is slowly becoming less concentrated version of that.

[scoofy]

"I don't want to discuss politics" when it's directly related to the topic at hand, is a complaint from the decadent class. It affects peoples lives, it's relevant, it's entirely plausible given the situation.

People are going to have to deal with the presence of politics in regular life for the unforeseen future, because the luxury of avoiding politics is generally the sign of having good governance.

[ab5tract]

Pretending that “politics” exists as something separate or invasive is not only ignorant, it’s dangerous.

If this were a thread about IBM machines of the 1930s, would it be playing “politics” to note that those machines were sold to Nazis and supported by IBM through sub-contractors even while we were at war with them? Is it crossing a line to mention they were used to facilitate the Holocaust?

[hagbard_c]

You are not alone in this sentiment. It is beyond the pale that the denizens of a 'hacker forum' are often so narrow-minded when it comes to engaging those who think outside of the personal zone of ideological preference. The same people who have been yammering about the importance of 'diversity' are dead set against diversity of opinion. Grow up, folks, get outside your comfort zone and engage some of those deplorables, irredeemables, garbage, rednecks, hillbillies and bible thumpers instead of howling along with the masses. Go ahead and try, you may find they are more like you than you've been told by the chattering classes. Sure you'll have disagreements over certain things but that does not make them the evil monsters your moral mentors have been claiming they are. Just... grow up.

[BriggyDwiggs42]

I’ve engaged with these people a good bit actually. They’re very normal people, in that they largely don’t know much about politics but have strong opinions.

[Mountain_Skies]

Hacker News' eventual death started the moment it joined the hysteria over the Lab Leak Theory. Since then it has trended more and more to be like Reddit, with ideological tribal concerns occupying an increasingly large mindshare. This drives away people who want to have earnest conversations in good faith, giving even more power to the ideologues. It will be a long death spiral but you can see it happening day by day.

[tim333]

I'm not sure what hysteria about lab leaks? I mean maybe it did, maybe it didn't.

[robertlagrant]

I've genuinely never seen "hysteria" from the people talking about the lab leak theory. The closest I've seen is from people who were extremely keen for no one to mention the theory. Not because of some cover-up, but I think just because that was what everyone was telling everyone else to do, hysteria-style.

[yarg]

The idea that the novel coronavirus didn't escape from the local coronavirus R&D laboratory never had anywhere near enough evidence to be credible.

It was pretty much the WHO simply repeating the claims of the Chinese government, who had already tried to cover up the outbreak (with any warnings sent to the WHO coming from Taiwan instead).

It was about as believable as the completely baseless claims that the emergency use authorised vaccine was safe and effective.

[peutetre]

> engage some of those deplorables, irredeemables, garbage, rednecks, hillbillies and bible thumpers instead of howling along with the masses

You are aware that no one in this thread has called anyone deplorable, irredeemable, garbage, a redneck, a hillbilly, or a bible thumper, right?

Your aggrievement and imagined slights is precisely how people like Trump and Musk manipulate you. And apparently the manipulation works really well.

Trump is not your retribution. Trump doesn't care about America. Trump doesn't care about Americans. Trump only cares about himself.

[bitzun]

I don't think GP was talking about ordinary people, they were making a comment about a politician's declared plans.

[techlaw]

In this context, diversity refers to characteristics, not to differences of opinion. That said, diverse thinking can be valuable when used for prosocial purposes.

[throwaway425933]

>> but the new administration hasn't even gone into office and I cannot get away from this.

Well, it cuts both ways. New administration should not be talking till they are in office.

[_blk]

Respectfully, why not? That's the whole point of campaigning. I seriously hope an incoming administration has a plan before they get to office. "I wouldn't change anything" fortunately doesn't seem to win elections when everything's sideways.

[Mordisquitos]

Campaigning is customarily done before elections, not after.

[ipaddr]

Campaigning is done right happens between elections. In most countries you only have 4/6 weeks. As Kim Campbell of Canada famously said an election is not the time to debate issues. Now the US has a much longer campaign period.. and elections every 2 years. They are always campaigning.

[rootusrootus]

I hope that the incoming President is not campaigning at this time, nor at any time in the future.

[nradov]

Every US President is constantly campaigning. Not necessarily for his own re-election but to create public pressure on Congress to support his agenda, and then to get votes for his endorsed successor.

[amazingamazing]

That makes no sense

[aziaziazi]

Many other countries have that. It’s like not giving you admin credentials before you contract start. But there’s no credential, the admin power comes from talking. And as a manager of managers, they has to restrain themselfes.

[ETH_start]

A certain faction always think the rule on keeping politics out of forums doesn't apply to them, because their politics are too correct and important. I experience this problem in groupchats where the very people who furiously demanded people not bring politics into the group and to make the group politics-free routinely push their own politics. They say their politics are too important to not bring up.

These same people LEFT other groups dedicated to politics so presumably if others respond in kind by discussing their own politics, they will leave the last groupchats too. This is why a certain faction is such an echo chamber. Incidentally, I was just banned from r/Archaeology for arguing that a post arguing that archeologists should prepare to fight the fascist takeover was too political.

[9dev]

There is no leaving out politics. Everything is political.

[an_guy]

There is no leaving out politics as long as it aligns with a certain political spectrum otherwise it's no politics.

[phtrivier]

Yes, it will be annoying to have people make jokes about the people in overwhelming position of power.

Who knows ? Maybe it won't even be possible for the whole four years ?

[namaria]

It sucks for everyone. What you want us to do? Pretend it ain't so?

[valval]

It doesn’t suck for the majority of people in the country. For them, it’s what they’d love to see.

Funnily enough, comments like yours are also what they’d love to see. Seeing leftists in tears over the policy changes we’re going to see is a great form of entertainment for many people.

[rsynnott]

> For them, it’s what they’d love to see.

Apparently not: https://www.axios.com/2024/11/15/trump-elon-musk-focus-group...

[valval]

Any other left wing propaganda you’d want me to know of?

[namaria]

It will suck soon enough for those thick enough to be gleeful about it now.

[valval]

Are you a betting man? I’d be happy to have a large wager with you about that.

[namaria]

We're all making bets all the time. I am positioned as I wish to be. Godspeed to you and your assets.

[Koala_ice]

I'm actually not bantering.

[Wytwwww]

> I loathe it

They are planning to appoint a nutjob who has publicly that he admitted cutting off the heads of whale carcasses with a chainsaw and dumping dead bears in the Central Park for "fun". Presumably he is also consuming those rotting animals carcasses that he keeps finding somehow (how else do you get brain worms?) to be the new US health secretary.

Seriously... what else do you need to know?

[notyourwork]

What do I need to know? Tech oriented, factually grounded discussion. The thing I come here for that allows me to partially escape reality and enjoy the finer things in life. I can tune into Fox, CNN, Facebook, or a myriad of places for political banter.

[ipaddr]

He has respect and years of experience in this field and a strong vision. Your talking points are things we might here on the view.

[agumonkey]

I'm also jaded by the constant snark I/we have to resort to to cope and disconnect from the insanity that is today's world

[buzzerbetrayed]

I’m glad you used the word snark since that exact word in the HN guidelines

> Be kind. Don't be snarky. Converse curiously; don't cross-examine. Edit out swipes.

[fumeux_fume]

Can't be much more worse than an off topic comment.

[zer8k]

These people have been inundated with the drivel of a billion dollar propaganda machine run by the most expensive campaign in history.

It's gonna take a while before they're back to normal again. I've heard so many "office of government efficiency" jokes in the last week I am tired of it too. But, in their defense if all you hear is how this administration is going to be the fourth reich (lol), destroy the country (lol), introduce fascism (lol), kill people (lol), etc you're going to react in a sarcastic way to anything you can grasp onto.

Though tbf, again, "office of government efficiency" seems like an oxymoron.

[jiggawatts]

Elon chose the name to be a joke.

You’re accusing the wrong side for making a mockery of government institutions.

[rightbyte]

It is a Doge coin joke, right?

edit: But then again P.A.T.R.I.O.T act etc is a thing so hard to tell if actual joke or just going with how US politicians like to be witty while naming stuff.

[cglace]

What if we use Trump's actual words?

[asdasdsddd]

No, we need more SNL trump impressions, Trump pundits, and corny jokes

[noncoml]

Can you mention one thing that Trump or Musk ever did out of altruism?

[noncoml]

Just adding that Mudk has shown that he is willing to completely ignore ethics and many times (almost?) cross the line of legality too.

Paying people to vote for Trump

Manipulating the stock market

Manipulated the crypto market multiple times

Tried to force Tesla employees to go to work during Covid

[notyourwork]

Sorry, how does your question relate to my comment?

[bydo]

Trump set up a whole university!

[Smoosh]

And he ran a charity!

https://www.forbes.com/sites/danalexander/2017/06/06/how-don...

[tim333]

Musk seems quite well meaning. Neuralink, the early Starlink donated to Ukraine, trying to move the world to Solar/electric etc.

Trump... dunno.

[sangnoir]

> trying to move the world to Solar/electric etc.

Is he, really? He recently announced that he supports Trump's position of getting rid on EV subsidies, stating that it hurts Tesla's competition more.

[valval]

I love the argument you’re making. If you’re against socialist policies, it serves as indication you don’t like the things I find good.

Please don’t ask me to fund anyone else’s EV purchase. It doesn’t matter to me one bit who’s in office to get rid of that evil policy, I’d still love it.

[seanmcdirmid]

They have already announced what they are going to do, with the pro-Trump side saying he's not serious or will mellow out the plan before he takes office, and the anti-Trump side saying he will do exactly what he says he's going to do.

Basically a repeat of 2016.

[weaksauce]

not a repeat of 2016 at all. he's got every lever of the government at his disposal. stacked supreme court, three branches of government on his side. hiring the worst people for every job possible and hiring only for fealty to him.

this will be much worse than 2016.

[giantg2]

He had both chambers in 2016 too, on similarly narrow majorities. The hiring has consistently been for allegiance. The court has changed a little. One thing you don't mention that is perhaps the biggest thing is temperance for reelection. But overall, I don't see much reason that it will be that much different from last time. Talking about things being much worse seems like an emotional statement.

[giantg2]

It always falls in the middle. There's a reason politicians are known as liars. Of course they won't do everything they claim on the campaign trail.

[seanmcdirmid]

Politicians bend the truth or promise what they are later unable to deliver (and often had no chance of delivering). But I think Trump usually tries to deliver on whatever he said in the campaign (like in 2016), like you can expect wide reaching tariffs in January or February (especially since half-way competent advisors, congress, and the courts are probably not going to moderate him as much this time).

Maybe make any computer purchases in December just to be safe.

[giantg2]

That would be pretty ironic if Trump is able to deliver more on his promises than other politicians.

[collingreen]

Why would it be ironic? He has less regard for the political group and general stability than a more run of the mill politician and now there is explicit immunity for anything he wants to do, like when he sold classified documents but "declassified them in his mind" right before once he got caught.

We watched four years of this already, including a rally with gallows being built in the crowd being told to march on the Capitol (he claims figuratively, and everyone just misunderstood, despite all the posts and planning and travel and tour groups). Last time it was absurd news headline after headline just to distract from the other things going on. We saw some bonkers stuff that would have disqualified other candidates in the past (or at least most candidates probably thought it would).

At this point I think his promises are easier to deliver on and he doesn't care about (and has been made immune from) the consequences that usually temper a politician's ability to deliver. Tariffs, no health plan, another wall (remember when he pardoned bannon for stealing the money they raised for the wall?), "stopping the war in Ukraine" but without a free Ukraine at the end, and decimating government regulatory agencies.

The weirdest part of this narrative for me is how the supporters say he wont do what he promises and the detractors fear he will. I don't know enough history to know if that is common but it sure feels backwards to me.

[giantg2]

"The weirdest part of this narrative for me is how the supporters say he wont do what he promises and the detractors fear he will. I don't know enough history to know if that is common but it sure feels backwards to me."

That's pretty common on all highly polarized topics. Happens all the time with stuff like democrat candidates and firearms seizures - supporters walking it back and detractors believing ever word.

[seanmcdirmid]

Trump is probably the first politician in history where supporters claim he isn’t going to do what he says he is going to do (“take Trump seriously, not literally!”) while his detractors claim that he is. It’s already a weird spot in history.

[giantg2]

That's pretty common on all highly polarized topics. Happens all the time with stuff like democrat candidates and firearms seizures - supporters walking it back and detractors believing every word.

[caekislove]

They are like this literally any time a Republican is in the White House. They were like this when Dubya was President too, even though today they act like he's some sort of elder statesman just because he hates Trump.

[yakz]

What? Dubya was selected by the Supreme Court. He started a war after peddling bullshit evidence in front of the whole world. Dubya was and is a piece of shit.

[jiggawatts]

Two wars, but who’s counting?

[netsharc]

There were some people (former staff of his) openly asking him, before the election, to denounce Trump. He didn't do that. November 6, he issued a congratulations to Trump. A piece of shit and a coward .

[ChildOfChaos]

As a non-american watching the election, this was one of the reasons I didn't want the result to be the way it went. Just for having to hear about it constantly from everywhere.