All: this article was flagged by users, not moderators, for the obvious reason that both it and the title are extreme flamebait. Predictably we got a wretched flamewar out of it.

Please review the site guidelines and use HN in the intended spirit: https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html.

Nationalistic flamewar is not ok here. Slurring groups or individuals who disagree with you is not ok here. Cartoonish accusations about communist agents and spies secretly manipulating the thread is explicitly against the site guidelines. It is also, frankly, foolish and a little embarrassing—anyone reading this thread or any other, whose emotions aren't pre-inflamed on the topic, can easily see what's going on: people with different backgrounds and therefore different views disagree with each other and feel strongly. I've studied this problem in depth for years; I've pored over voting data, flagging data, and lots of other data, and I can tell you that the evidence not only confirms that, it's probably the most solid evidence of any kind I've ever examined [1].

The value of this site is curiosity [2]. The goal is curious conversation. When the needle goes this badly into the red, curious conversation is impossible. Worse, we get the internet thread equivalent of a world war. That's a grandiose analogy because internet forums are so trivial—but the emotional dynamics are not trivial. The anger and accusation here are the forces which, in the extreme, make people to try to destroy each other.

One can derive a significant conclusion: if HN is to have a chance at achieving its mandate—which is in all our interests, because it's only that which makes the place interesting—then we all need to work on these dynamics in ourselves.

Here's one way to do that: don't see the other person as an enemy, a demon [3], a communist, or a brainwashed Westerner. See them as someone who doesn't have the same information you have. Share information with the intention to communicate, not defeat the other. Don't expect to persuade them—deep things like this can only shift slowly. When someone responds with information that you feel is false or, worse, might have some truth to it, tolerate the painful flare-up that will inevitably surge in your system. Wait for it to subside—don't let it power your response. Remember that you're talking not only to one person who perhaps strongly disagrees with you—you are broadcasting to an entire community of readers. Practicing these skills is the only way to make your case to the community that can actually do any good, so even if there are brainwashed Westerners or sinister manipulators or communist spies, it's what we need to be doing anyway [4].

[1] As I've said elsewhere, the odds that someone who was posting about Julia in 2015 is a communist agent who was planted to manipulate HN round to zero. That, in the median case, is who you're talking to here.

There are years' worth of explanations about this problem at https://hn.algolia.com/?sort=byDate&dateRange=all&type=comme..., for anyone who wants more.

[2] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=true&sor...

[3] https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...

[4] This is the "sufficiently smart manipulator" (SSM) argument: https://hn.algolia.com/?dateRange=all&page=0&prefix=false&so...