by rramadass | 2026-02-24 08:48:45+00:00
@dang, I completely disagree with you here and we have had this conversation before too. I had mentioned then that this site is being manipulated by political propagandists/fraudsters/etc. which you had hand waved away.

These two threads which you are pointing to are the perfect example of what i was talking about, with evidence which you seem to disregard. My language was harsh in order to shame the manipulators and get them to stop. HN's guidelines should be followed in spirit and not always in letter.

HN needs to do a better job of moderating political/agenda-driven/propaganda/manipulation in its threads.

Read the comment chain in the threads to see for yourself.

1) In a thread to do with "Feynman Lectures" i.e. Physics, a few introduce a talking point on his behaviour which is then amplified by others in a co-ordinated manner (not random) to hijack the thread in a totally cancel-culture direction. More than 50% of comments on that thread is about this irrelevant negative topic which others pointed out too. "ShamLegacyTldr" is created just to add inflammatory comments in the guise of virtue signaling all of which was obvious. Being polite with these sort of people is just playing into their hands and does not get them to stop; You have to be blunt and harsh. That account has not contributed/participated in anything else. The inference should be clear.

2) In a thread to do with French/Mongols, "thisislife2" drags in Mughal History of India, current Indian political talking points, Israel/Palestine issues in a most inflammatory manner. Their version of history is not factual, their dates are wrong, no references/citations are given and everything is suspect. Some excerpts from them below;

Let me begin with a disclaimer - I consider any "history lessons" that seeks to perpetuate the "Hindu victim-hood" mentality with formulaic politics of - "if not for the stupid Buddhist rulers or the evil Muslim, Christian invaders etc. etc. India would be so advanced, like, you wouldn't believe it!" /s as revisionist history (mostly stemming from the politics of the RSS - India's Hindu-right).

Like with any religious fundamentalist political grouping, Hindu religious fundamentalists (Sanghis) too tend to be overly fixated on the religious identity of anyone they meet (dead or alive), past rulers included, and judge everything they do, or whatever happened around them, through the coloured lens of religion.

You may be right - Russian invasion of Ukraine, the genocide in Gaza (most westerners don't even know that Israel is a settler-colony - https://tuckercarlson.com/tucker-show-fares-abraham-021826 that has been deliberately oppressing, chasing and killing Palestinians for a long time) and Trump demanding Greenland - all indicate that certain oligarchs are working to bring back imperialism.

Not sure what you are saying - Israel has colonised Palestine. Palestine is still not free or independent. Nor have the Palestinian natives been absorbed and made Israeli citizens like the Americans, Canadians or Australians did with the natives on the land they colonised. Do you see why this is problematic - by not giving them their own state or making them citizens, and culling them over the decades, they are effectively seeking the genocide of Palestine. And then westerners act surprised when Palestinians fight for their freedom (is the second amendment only for white, Christian, Americans?).

"freethinker101" account is created (there are zero contributions from this user), posts a most inflammatory comment (now deleted) to which "thisislife2" responds within minutes with a very inflammatory and obviously made-up story, viz;

True. I didn't believe about houses not being rented to muslims, till I helped a muslim friend hunt for a house - a woman we contacted to rent a house said that her husband doesn't want to rent their flat to muslims. She was genuinely embarrassed by it when I asked why, and she honestly said she doesn't understand this kind of religious bigotry and her husband is has become a "khattar Hindu" who just doesn't like muslims.

...

Sometimes it is hard to wrap your mind on why Sanghi self-esteem is so tied to putting down other religion / culture to feel great about their own religion / culture (while the ordinary majority Hindus in India have no problem in feeling pride for their history, as they don't confuse religious and political actions).

Do you see the manipulation here? Or are you okay with this but not okay with me calling them out?

HN either needs to police these itself or allow "real-world" people (like myself) to help you do it if you want to maintain the standard/quality of discussions on this site.