zlacker

META: Not sure why this was flagged/dead? I just vouched for it. Is it because it's political and not strictly about tech/hacker news?

I'd argue that current events have a direct impact on all of us and this absolutely warrants discussion. Furthermore, I'm not sure I know of any instance where a President has disseminated writing like this. It's an interesting change, since it means that former Presidents can continue exerting influence.

>>Horizo+(OP)
Then reflagged.

>>Horizo+(OP)
Jimmy Carter has done a lot since leaving office, as a diplomat and as an author. I think Bush I remained fairly politically active after leaving office, as well. Wikipedia has several articles about "post-presidency of [ex-prez]" but it's a very incomplete list.

>>Horizo+(OP)
I think political content is discouraged here because of an assumption that politics is inherently unreasonable and trollish. But politics, government, society/culture are as much a system with dynamics as anything else, and we should be able to discuss that here. And as systems-thinkers, we should hold ourselves to a higher standard of thought and discourse.

>>dqpb+Rc
I really appreciate this way of articulating it. There are responsible and constructive ways that we can discuss politics in this forum and I hope that adopting a systems mentality can help us sidestep tribalism and put problem-solving at the center of the discussion. There are obviously still questions to be resolved outside of a systems discussion, like values and the proper ends for politics, but I often find that if you dig into those with humility and curiosity, there's more commonality than most people realize.

>>Horizo+(OP)
We can't pretend to maintain a strict separation between politics and tech, but this article is nothing but a direct call to specific political action. I generally hammer the flag button on that kind of thing, even when it's a good cause; I don't think HN is or should be a space for political organizing.

>>SpicyL+wm
This is the discussion I wanted to have, rather than being downvoted.

I actually agree with you, but given that the article was posted by mwseibel, I wanted to see what everyone's thinking was. Just because he's a significant YC partner doesn't mean he knows/has authority over HN. It's a valid discussion to have.

But what's the appropriate line? A hard line with no room for interpretation, even in significant events? Where does Coronavirus land in that then? It certainly affects tech/hacking, but it definitely is being tainted by politics and belief structures. Are the only valid articles ones that talk about remote work?

Similar thing related to civic action. Keeping politics out of HN is a good rule, but man, that line is never going to be discrete.

>>Horizo+F61
It's certainly a fuzzy line. Like I said, there's no way to wall off politics from tech - many issues we discuss are inherently political, and in many cases a blanket refusal to discuss them would also be political.

This article clearly falls over that fuzzy line. It's not a discussion, or an analysis, or an evaluation of competing claims. It's not even an attempt to persuade. It's a call to action, a set of instructions from Mr. Obama on how to accomplish the political goals he presumes readers share. I do share his goals, and his instructions sound reasonable, but I don't see HN as an appropriate venue to publish them. Not every discussion forum should turn into a political action committee when there's important politics to be done.