undefined | Better HN

0 pointstomhow1mo ago0 comments

If the simplified version of your statement is: this could have been an opportunity for a discussion that led to more people accepting that the USA is fascist, if only we had moderated it better, and we should work equally hard to moderate the discussion well if there's a thread that could lead to more people thinking the USA isn't fascist, then... OK.

But it's unviable to try to moderate like this. Given the demands on our time and the purpose of the site, the upside just isn't there, on a topic that has been discussed frequently for more than a decade. After this amount of time, no meaningful number of people are apt to change their minds on that question.

My comment about “policing” was meant in good spirit, but there's an important point there. We really don't see ourselves as police; we're here to uphold guidelines not enforce laws. Our role is to create the conditions for interesting discussions about new topics.

Usually that's about new technologies and projects, but there's plenty of space for discussions about politics, and as I've said multiple times in this thread, we'd be happy to host regular discussions about new ideas that can move the world beyond the current political dysfunction, and I'd happily spend hours each day helping to make discussions like that more fruitful.

0 comments

1 comments · 1 top-level

mindslight1mo ago

> If the simplified version of your statement is: this could have been an opportunity for a discussion that led to more people accepting that the USA is fascist

No, this is actually the opposite of where I'm coming from. I don't see many people changing their minds, especially at this point, and especially in the online-impersonal context.

Rather what I'd hope for is some breathing room to foster discussions more of the form: if we take it as a given that the USA is fascist, how do we respond and what are the next steps. That's what I would see as being able to stay in the constructive/curious mindset - not merely prolixly re-litigating basic true/false judgements pertaining to the article.

As it stands there are some comments that point at some direction, but they end up being the apogee of substantiveness rather than a starting point for a greater discussion. Whether it's sabotage from the outright gaslighters, or even people who agree but are at their own limit on the topic so they can't entertain the idea of something working and end up arguing against it. That partisan re-litigating, no matter how couched, sucks up most of the air in the room.

And sure, the word "police" is harsher than you want to think of yourselves. But that is the underlying dynamic, right? For example when you called out the comment of mine there is an implied "or else" there, right? And personally I don't think that outcome was particularly just, as I was responding to a comment that was already strongly against the guidelines of curious discussion. But I do just have to accept what amounts to tone policing - like police, your emphasis is on keeping order.