[ryandrake]

To be fair, dang's position has consistently been (and he posted as such yesterday[1]) that the flag brigading comes from two distinct groups: 1. Users who don't want to see "politics" and 2. Users who are partisan and want to hide politics they don't like.

My view is that these are essentially the same group. "Not wanting to see politics" is itself just a partisan view in favor of whatever the Status Quo currently is. So if you're going through and flagging articles describing wrongdoing or calling for change, because they are "political," then you're just operating in the service of whoever is currently in power.

1: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46771917

[Jensson]

> My view is that these are essentially the same group. "Not wanting to see politics" is itself just a partisan view in favor of whatever the Status Quo currently is. So if you're going through and flagging articles describing wrongdoing or calling for change, because they are "political," then you're just operating in the service of whoever is currently in power.

But some people do that regardless who is currently in power, what do you call that? I'd call that "not wanting to see politics" and not being partisan.

[progbits]

Agreed.

Given the consistency and speed of flags though, I don't think #2 is just "organic" flagging.

[Jensson]

> Given the consistency and speed of flags though, I don't think #2 is just "organic" flagging.

Thousands of people view these very quickly once they hit the frontpage, its enough 0.1% of those are willing to flag to see consistent near instant flagging.